I Didn't Do It!
by FongSaiYuk319
Summary: Basically SessKag...the gods no longer deem Sesshomaru worthy of all he has, and will take it away unless he learns to give back and love. His intermediary pleas a second chance, but his pride gets in the way and causes everything to backfire.
1. Travelling

I Didn't Do It

I Didn't Do It!

A/N:

Hey ya'll! So, uh, yeah, I'm gonna be typing up this story…..but it will be slow. So for you people who, after reading this, will ever want to continue this story again, either remember my penname (FongSaiYuk319) and look me up later, remember the story title (I Didn't Do It!) and search for it later, or if you have an account, put me on author's alert….so yeah, that's the shebang for the instructions, for all of you who actually read author's notes….

Disclaimer:

I don't own anything! Inuyasha is too wonderful for me to ever own it…sniff sniff..TT…

Summary:

Basically, this is a Sesshomaru/Kagome story….sorry for those who don't like it, but I think Fluffy is just adorable (in his cold, ice-like way)! Since I don't like it when Inuyasha's heart gets broken, I'm just gonna say that he and Kagome are good friends, er, _really_ good friends. I don't know if I'm gonna do a pairing of Inuyasha with somebody….but I'll talk about that later. On with the summary. So there in feudal Japan, Inuyasha and the gang are still looking for Naraku to complete the Shikon Jewel. While battling one particularly nasty "outgrowth" of Naraku, Kagome gets separated from the rest of her group (basically, she got thrown clear across the Eastern Lands…guess where she lands up?). Oh that's enough, on with the story!

I have been alerted that I'm "bitter and full of ire," as a response from reading my summary. Thus said, I have removed the, er, offensive material. Um….I don't mean to come across that way, I'm just really sarcastic. I apologize to anyone I may have offended if my sarcasm did not translate correctly over paper.

Chapter 1-Travelling

"Oi, Inuyasha?" Miroku walked around in the forest, looking for the half-youkai.

"Eh?" Inuyasha called from the stream.

"Where are you?" Miroku continued to walk towards the voice.

"Shhh! Over here!" Inuyasha hissed.

"Oh." Miroku followed the bright red fire-rat robe's movements.

"What did you want?" Inuyasha asked, anxiously looking around.

"Kagome told me to tell you that dinner was ready," Miroku said.

"Really?" Inuyasha asked distractedly.

"What are you doing?" Miroku asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

"I'm looking for the source of…" Inuyasha was interrupted by a whir of wind passing by them. "Stinkin'!..." Inuyasha took off at top speed, following the whir.

"Did I just miss something?" Miroku wondered. After hearing cursing and a feminine shriek, Miroku hurried back to the camp. When he got there, he found that he needn't have worried.

"Uh, Kouga?" Kagome said, unnoticed as Kouga held her in his arms with her back against his chest as he yelled at Inuyasha.

"What are you doing here, wimpy wolf?" Inuyasha spat. "Get outta' here; I can't stand your rancid odor."

"Likewise, dog turd. D'you think I'm here to see you? Don't flatter yourself too much, you might hurt yourself while you try to think of any good qualities about yourself," Kouga spat back, unconsciously holding Kagome tighter against himself.

"Let go of her, you pathetic excuse for a demon!" Inuyasha roared, enraged at Kouga's act of possession.

"At least I'm FULL demon, pathetic half-breed," Kouga retorted.

"Why are you here?" Inuyasha demanded again.

"To see my woman, of course. Really, I thought even a simple-minded hanyou like yourself would know why I came," Kouga said in a bored voice.

Miroku found if amusing that the person they were arguing about was standing confused and ignored in Kouga's embrace. If Kouga came to see Kagome, then why was he still talking to Inuyasha? Miroku suddenly saw something interesting; Kagome had closed her eyes and tucked her head underneath Kouga's chin. She inhaled deeply, smiled, and visibly snuggled deeper into Kouga's arms.

"I—" Kouga froze as he felt Kagome me snuggle up to him. Then he smirked.

"What are you smiling about, wimpy wolf? You ain't got nothing to be happy about because I'm about to disembowel you!" Inuyasha was ignorant of Kagome's actions, and started to charge toward Kouga.

"Heh." Kouga ducked by sitting down on the ground as Inuyasha came flying towards him, swinging Tetsusaiga.

"DIE!" Inuyasha doubled back on himself when he smelled something interesting. He sniffed again, trying to determine what it was. It smelled like Kagome, and it smelled like Kagome when she was content. Content like one is after a busy day to go to bed in a big bouncy bed with huge fluffy pillows and a warm comforter. He stopped his charge, confused.

Kagome yawned and snuggled yet deeper into Kouga's embrace. Everyone watched fascinated as Kagome continued to make herself comfortable in Kouga's lap.

"Wha?..." Inuyasha said, astounded.

"She obviously prefers me over you." Kouga said triumphantly.

Inuyasha just sat down, staring his "vacant stare." (A/N: remember when Inuyasha thought that Kagome didn't want to stay with him after all? Well, that's the face he's making.)

Kouga chuckled. He looked down at Kagome, "So you finally—"

"Shhh! Don't you see she's asleep?" Miroku said hurriedly.

"Huh? She's asleep?" Kouga asked. He felt her pulse, "I guess she is."

"You smell nice, Inuyasha," Kagome mumbled, shifting a tiny bit and inhaling deeply before smiling.

That stirred Inuyasha out of his "vacant" stupor. "What?!"

"That's right, dog turd, she thinks I smell nice." Kouga smirked.

"Yeah, but it's me she's dreaming of," Inuyasha scoffed. "She thinks I'm holding her, not you."

Kouga merely growled at Inuyasha. This caused Kagome to giggle in her sleep. "That tickles." She hit his shoulder hard to make him stop growling. This surprised Kouga, who stopped growling out of shock.

"Does she always do this in her sleep?" Kouga asked Miroku.

"I don't know, I've never slept with her," Inuyasha said, rolling his eyes.

"You better not have. Do you know, Houshi-san?" Kouga asked Miroku.

"No, I have no better knowledge of her sleep habits than Inuyasha," Miroku answered honestly. "She has not yet agreed to bear my children." While speaking this, Miroku had gone closer to Kouga and Kagome to inspect her.

"Pervert," Kagome mumbled, "stop asking me to bear your children…" She reached out her hand to slap Miroku's face.

"Wha?..." Miroku felt a red five star beginning to spread on his face.

Inuyasha squatted down and scratched his head. "She's certainly not awake…"

"No…but she seems to very aware of her surroundings, even when she's asleep." Kouga mused, forgetting his argument with the half-inuyoukai in front of him. "Let's experiment…"

As Kouga bent over her, Inuyasha flew to stop the barbaric act. Too late. With a sound 'smack!' Kouga kissed Kagome on the lips.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome trailed off. Kouga got an eye twitch. Inuyasha smirked. "Why…did…you…LET KOUGA KISS ME?!" Kagome opened her eyes, glaring at Inuyasha.

"You're awake?" Inuyasha asked, shocked.

"SIT!" Kagome yelled.

Inuyasha went down with a 'humph!'

"You." Kagome pointed at Kouga. "Why?" she demanded.

"How long have you been awake?" Kouga asked.

"Answer my question first. Why?" Kagome insisted.

"I wanted to see how responsive you were during sleep." Kouga said simply.

"I just woke up while you kissed me. Which reminds me…." Kagome slapped his face three times harder than she had slapped Miroku.

"Ouch! What was that for?" Kouga demanded, rubbing his cheek.

"Feh!" Kagome got up from Kouga's lap and dusted herself off.

"After all that, you slap me now?" Kouga asked.

"After all what?" Kagome asked.

Kouga just raised his eyebrow.

"You fell asleep on him." Miroku supplied.

Kagome began to turn bright red, and she looked at the ground. She felt cool fingers touch her chin, making her face him.

"It's okay; I'll still come back for you, but until then…" Kouga swiftly bent down and kissed her again, hard. Before Kagome could protest Kouga was off, going back to his wolf tribe.

"Why that little…" Inuyasha cried, outraged.

"Kagome?" Miroku asked, coming near.

"Huh?" Kagome was still in a stupor.

"Are you okay?" Miroku moved warily, just in case she was awake when she had slapped him last.

"I…think so." Kagome sat down. Suddenly she yawned, stretched, stood up, and smiled.

"Are you sure?" Miroku inched still closer.

"Yeah, I'm just….really….ti…yerd…" Kagome collapsed.

Miroku rushed forward and caught her just in time.

"Inu—yasha…" Miroku grunted; the force of the dead weight too sudden for Miroku to handle.

"Feh!" Inuyasha helped Miroku place Kagome on his back and walked over to the fire pit. Inuyasha then set her down on one of her sleeping bag contraptions.

"She just must be really tired." Inuyasha mused.

"I wish Sango would come back sooner….she was the only one who really understood Kagome." Miroku sighed.

"Yeah, me too." Inuyasha grumbled. He started to brood when he smelled something funny, and this time it wasn't that darn wimpy wolf. He sniffed tentatively and then swore.

"What is it?" Miroku asked.

"Naraku," Inuyasha growled. He really hated that smell of miasma.

"How close?" Miroku asked again, this time worried.

"About ten miles away. With that," Inuyasha nodded his head towards Kagome, "asleep, we have no good way to fight him. Let's avoid him for now. We'll track him down later. She needs to rest."

"I'll pack up the camp." Miroku busied himself around, collecting things and putting them into bags.

Inuyasha put a sleeping Kagome on his back, took a few bags, and then started to move in the opposite direction from which the smell was radiating. "Let's go."

"Ok." Miroku followed Inuyasha.

They continued to walk in that direction for about fifteen miles, and by sundown they had found a place to camp for the night. They also planned to stay there for a day, so that Kagome could rest. During the whole time, Kagome had stayed asleep, even when Inuyasha tried to wake her up by yelling in her ear.

"Darn these female humans! They are so weak!" Inuyasha threw his hands up in surrender. "I give up on trying to revive her."

"Hmmm…this seems to be a rare ailment, but there must be a cure! I'll go into town to find a cure!" Miroku took off in search of a town.

_A 'cure' indeed. More likely, a way just to find people to ask your favorite question!_ Inuyasha sniffed.

Kagome just then rolled over and mumbled something. Inuyasha tried to get closer to hear what she was saying, but even his sensitive dog ears couldn't pick up the words. He watched her shift to get more comfortable on the hard ground.

_I wonder what's wrong with her?_ Inuyasha was truly confused. He really hoped Miroku was serious this time in his endeavors. He began to get the firewood from around the forest, always keeping one eye on Kagome. She was helpless enough when she was awake, how much more helpless would she be when she was asleep? Then again…she had just shown that she was very much more violent when she was asleep. Inuyasha sighed as he dumped his load of wood onto the make-shift fire pit; things were sure boring when you didn't have someone to talk to.

Inuyasha pondered this awhile; before he met Kagome and the others, being alone never bothered him before. He also didn't really have friends before them either. He looked at Kagome again. Still sleeping.

"Yo, Kagome, you need to wake up. Look, don't be depressed just because Shippo and Sango aren't here. We get along just fine by ourselves." Inuyasha spoke to the sleeping human beside him. "Now, where do you keep those matches…" He started to rifle through Kagome's bag to find those sulfur-covered sticks that made fires so much faster than flint. While bending over Kagome to reach her bag, a rock hit his supporting foot and he fell on top of Kagome.

"OI!" Inuyasha yelled as he went down. He caught himself just before his face hit Kagome's shoulder; that would have left a bad bruise. Just then, Kagome shifted and rolled over, knocking Inuyasha's hand and causing him to fall on top of Kagome.

_I hate my life_ was Inuyasha's thoughts as he came yet again too close to impaling his face with a body-part of Kagome. Just as he finished using a colorful string of words, he realized what position he was in—his face was in her neck, the rest of his body was on top of hers. Inuyasha did a rare thing—he blushed. He became painfully aware of what the body underneath him felt like.

He looked at Kagome's face, bracing himself with his hands. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping. Inuyasha snorted mentally; peaceful was one of the qualities that she didn't posses when angry. And she was angry quite a lot lately. Inuyasha sniffed to make sure no one was around, and made a decision. If that wimpy wolf could get a kiss from Kagome, he could too. There was no way in heck Inuyasha was going to let that imbecile get the upper hand.

Inuyasha leaned down to kiss Kagome, but then paused, as he suddenly got a picture of and enraged Kagome 'sitting' him ten thousand times and then roasting him for dinner; she would be watching with glee, too. Inuyasha shivered. He gathered his resolve again, and resumed his previous activity.

_Just to let you know, Kagome, I'm not trying to molest you. I just can't let that moron of a wolf have an upper hand._ Inuyasha prayed that she would spare him later.

Inuyasha held his breath as he bent down again, and timidly placed a chaste (that's right, CHASTE, you pervs….) kiss on Kagome's lips. He sighed in relief after a minute; he was still breathing and alive.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice broke through his relief aura.

"Huh?" Inuyasha's head whirled around, a blush spreading across his cheeks.

"Oh, are you ok? Are you hot? Do you have a fever?" Kagome rushed over to him and placed her hand on his forehead.

"Uh…er…no. I'm fine. About time you woke up. You've been asleep the whole day." Inuyasha shooed her away with a flap of his hand.

"Okay. Where's Houshi-sama?" Kagome asked, stretching.

"He's in the town," Inuyasha shook his head.

"Oh, goodness. Is there a stream nearby? I want to take a bath." Kagome asked.

"I don't know. Let's go check. I need to take a bath too…I'm overdue." Inuyasha said absentmindedly.

Kagome giggled.

"What?" Inuyasha asked, looking behind at the giggling girl.

"Nothing, let's go." Kagome followed Inuyasha.

They found a rushing stream about fifty yards away from the camp site. It was surrounded by trees and had a conveniently placed large boulder near the edge of the stream.

"Thanks, Inuyasha." Kagome started to take off her shirt and froze when she realized Inuyasha was still standing there. "Uh…are you gonna leave?"

"No." Inuyasha said.

"Okay…er, could you look away while I get in? You can take a bath on the other side of the boulder, I guess." Kagome said hesitantly.

"Sure. Better yet, I'll go in first so you have nothing to worry about." Inuyasha stripped off his shirt before Kagome could 'eep!' and turn around.

_That should be illegal_ Kagome thought, picturing Inuyasha shirtless again. She heard a splash and a yelp as Inuyasha got in.

"Is it safe?" Kagome asked, momentarily distracted.

"Sure." Inuyasha ducked into the water and grabbed a handful of sand. He started to rub the sand in his hair when he smelled something fruity. He paused and called out to Kagome,

"Hey, what's that smell?"

"What smell?" Kagome asked from the other side of the rock.

"That fruity smell, it kinda smells like…I dunno. It's like a mix of fruits." Inuyasha replied.

"Oh, that's my shampoo." Kagome said, giggling.

"Why do you keep giggling like that?" Inuyasha muttered. "What is shampoo used for?"

"It's to wash my hair." Kagome said.

"Feh, it's much better to use sand." Inuyasha dismissed.

"No really, this stuff really makes your hair clean. Here, let me give you some so you can use it. You have more hair that I do, after all." Kagome threw the bottle over the rock and heard a 'bonk!'

"Ow! Goodness, next time tell me when you are gonna go chucking things across." Inuyasha yelped.

"Sorry!" Kagome apologized.

"That's okay…hmmm…" Inuyasha inspected the bottle, turning it over in his hands. He squirted some of the stuff on to his hands and sniffed it. He reared back as the concentrated smell of shampoo was too much for his sensitive nose.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called out.

"What?" Inuyasha shook his head to clear it.

"Are you having trouble?"

"No."

"Come on, here, look, stop snarling at the shampoo bottle, I'll help you." Kagome swam to the other side of the boulder without thinking about what she was wearing, or rather, what she wasn't wearing. Fortunately, Inuyasha was too frustrated with the shampoo bottle to notice.

"Darn…" Inuyasha snarled.

Kagome sighed and got some shampoo on her hand and proceeded to rub it into Inuyasha's scalp before he could stop her.

"Stop grumbling." Kagome scolded absentmindedly.

"It's just that it's unmanly to have you rub that stuff in my hair like a child." Inuyasha muttered.

After a few minutes, after Kagome had worked up a lather; she heard a funny noise. It sounded like growling, but it had a softer texture to it, kind of like…purring. Surprised, she took a peek at Inuyasha's face in the reflection in the water. His eyes were closed in bliss and he was purring unconsciously. Deciding that he would not be happy if he was caught purring, she said,

"Inuyasha? I need to rinse out your hair, uh, I'm going to dunk your head under the water. I'm not trying to drown you. Unless you want to do it?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, I'll do it." Inuyasha said, blushing. He was glad she hadn't caught him with his eyes closed. He dunked under the water and ran his hands through his hair, trying to get the soapy suds out of it. When he came up again, he hair was shampoo free. He opened his eyes and grinned. Suddenly he backed up violently as he found himself two inches away from Kagome's face, and the rest of his body closer than that.

"Sorry." Inuyasha mumbled.

"That's okay. Here, use this." She gave him a brush.

"Huh?" Inuyasha took it.

"You're supposed to comb your hair with it."

"Oh." Inuyasha started to pull the brush through his hair and found that unlike other brushes, this ran through cleanly.

"Here, now duck under water again." Kagome instructed when he was done. "Now, take this and comb through your hair again," she said when he came up again.

"All done! Ok, I'm getting out on the other side….don't look." Kagome swam back, thinking _don't look? After all, you were really close to him a minute ago…_She slapped herself mentally and climbed out of the water to get dressed. "I'm done."

"Okay." Inuyasha hopped out and grabbed his clothes.

_He really has no modesty_ Kagome thought as he was in front of her stark naked. She had the decency to turn around quickly and avert her eyes.

"Are you quite done yet?" Kagome asked.

"Huh?" Inuyasha asked, looking up.

"I said, are you done dressing yet?"

"Uh, yeah." Inuyasha mumbled, scratching his head. He didn't understand her.

"Let's go." Kagome grabbed his hand and dragged him back towards the camp.

"Wha-?" Inuyasha said as he was being led back to camp.

They set about making the sleeping arrangements while they waited for Miroku to return. Sighing, Inuyasha looked over at Kagome, who was yawning and slipping inside her sleeping bag.

"The lecher is never gonna return, is he?" Inuyasha asked to no one in particular.

"I didn't know you cared, Inuyasha." Miroku stepped into the opening.

"How did you get there?" Inuyasha asked, irritated.

"I walked. She's asleep again, I see."

"What does it matter to you?" Inuyasha asked.

"Is that…mango I smell on you?" Miroku walked up to Inuyasha and began sniffing his hair curiously.

"What you doing?!" Inuyasha yelped.

"It smells like…mango and…orange." Miroku backed away from Inuyasha and scratched his head. "It also smells like Kagome."

Inuyasha blushed and gave a "feh!" Miroku raised an eyebrow at this.

"What did you do?" Miroku asked, a perverted smile starting to creep across his face.

"Nothing! Not all of us are like you!" Inuyasha barked.

"So you did do something!" Miroku said gleefully.

"I did not!"

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't!"

"Right."

"Shut up, Miroku, I'm trying to sleep." Kagome said grumpily. She tossed and turned before she felt comfortable.

"Was she sleep-talking again?" Miroku crept closer.

"I don't know." Inuyasha scratched his head.

Miroku bent down over Kagome, and touched her pulse on her neck. "She's asleep, Inuyasha."

"Good. Now it's my turn to sleep. You stand guard." Inuyasha lept up into a tree.

"Thanks." Miroku said dryly. He sat down against a tree and propped his head on his elbow. He waited for hours. And hours. Bored, he stood up and stretched. He walked around and squatted down next to Kagome. Being the letch that he was, he got a perverted idea and since Inuyasha was not awake, he had a free reign. He bent down and gave Kagome a kiss (A/N: it wasn't chaste, but I'm not going into detail).

A hand snaked up from her sleeping bag as Kagome slapped Miroku hard, creating an even bigger welt on his already welted face. Inuyasha awoke from the sound and jumped down into the clearing. He saw Miroku giving a very Shigure-like smile and rubbing his red cheek.

"What'd you do this time?" Inuyasha asked, curious.

"Heaven…" was all Miroku mumbled before going to sit against his tree again. Kagome had fallen back asleep.

"Goodness, Miroku." Inuyasha exclaimed when he realized what Miroku must have done.

"What? Sango's not here anymore…" Miroku sighed; what a lovely lady to grope.

"Perv." Inuyasha lept back up into his tree.

Miroku just sighed in contentment. If he couldn't get the itch out of his hand, he just got the itch out of his mouth to make up for it. He hadn't groped anyone's butt in three days! He was dying from groping withdrawal. _Too bad she had to track down that other shard…Kagome seems to miss her a lot. I also miss her a bunch too…what a lovely—_

Miroku was knocked out by a stone from above.

"Stop smiling like that. Gosh. What a pervert." Inuyasha muttered. He closed his eyes again, lightly dozing as Miroku was now unable to stand watch.

_Snap_

Inuyasha's eyes' fluttered open at the sound. He looked around, sharpening his senses to see where the sound came from. He spotted Kagome tossing around restlessly. What was wrong with her? She had never fallen asleep like that before; especially so deeply. She seemed only to wake up when greatly disturbed. Inuyasha scratched his head; how troublesome. As he was about to doze again, he smelled something disturbing. Naraku seemed to know where they were, and seemed to be heading right for them! Cursing, Inuyasha smelled them to be about only about a half mile away.

"Miroku!" Inuyasha yelled.

"What!" Miroku said, waking up from his state. (A/N I don't know how yelling makes an unconscious person wake up, but whatever)

"Naraku!" Inuyasha leapt down from the tree and went over to Kagome.

"Yo! Wake up! Naraku is after us! Look, he's really close!" Inuyasha yelled.

Kagome merely rolled over.

"Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, interrupting his stream of curses.

"Huh?" Inuyasha paused, looking over at Miroku.

"Each time Kagome has wakened up, what happened before?" Miroku asked, more to himself than Inuyasha.

"Hmmm…I don't know! Well…now that you say it…she was kissed each time before she woke up." Inuyasha scratched his head again, confused.

"Wake her up, Inuyasha. Naraku comes closer." Miroku heard the stomping of the beast. Miroku hurriedly packed away the things.

"What?! You want me to-to-to KISS her?" Inuyasha spluttered.

"Yes." Miroku said distractedly.

"No way!" _At least, not in front of you! _Inuyasha thought.

"Fine. I'll do it." Miroku advanced on Kagome with a gleam in his eye.

"NO! Okay, I'll do it. Just don't look." Inuyasha said, panicking. He would not let Miroku get near Kagome! He bent over Kagome and tentatively planted a short small kiss on her lips and leapt away quickly. Just as Miroku predicted, Kagome woke up shortly, fisting her eyes.

"Wha-what happened?" Kagome asked, yawning.

"Naraku is coming closer, and we have to—" Inuyasha was interrupted as a small child appeared in their camping circle.

"Who are you?" Inuyasha demanded. This child REEKED of Naraku.

The child took a step forward, causing a resounding "boom" to echo throughout the forest. Kagome looked at it in surprise.

"I have come for the shards." The child said in a ridiculously loud voice. "She has them. Hand them over." The child advanced towards Kagome, who still in her sleeping bag.

"Stop right there, kid. I'll hurt you if you don't!" Inuyasha leapt forward and drew his Tetsusaiga.

"Stop." The child raised it's hand, making Inuyasha freeze mid-air.

"WHAT?!" Inuyasha yelled. He cursed at the child as he fought to regain his mobility.

"Silence." The child said, effectively shutting Inuyasha up by force; his voice box was temporarily rendered inoperable.

Miroku sneaked up and placed a seal on Inuyasha, freeing him from his invisible bondage. Inuyasha fell to the ground with a "thump!"

"Hey, you. That was a bad choice." Inuyasha got up and yelled, "KAZE NO KIZU!"

The child was hit and flew forward, smacking straight into Kagome, sending her flying.

"INUYASHA!" Kagome screamed as she flew farther than she had expected. When she hit the ground she fell unconscious.

"That, my dear hanyou, was a bad idea." Miroku noted briefly, before ducking away from Inuyasha's flying fist.

"Shut up! We have to go save Kagome! She was headed straight for the Western Lands!" Inuyasha grabbed everything, including Miroku, and started flying in the direction of Kagome.

A/N

So, I got one chapter done…this is my first Inuyasha fic, though. I'm not sure how good this will be, so any type of input/feedback would be great…hint hint. How did ya'll like it? Please R&R before you go! Oh, and as a reward, I'll give you all another chapter! Only if you review though…I'm typing it right after I'm done with this!

-FongSaiYuk319


	2. Where Am I?

I Didn't Do It!

A/N:

So, this is your promised chapter, and I hope that you guys like the story so far…but you needed to at least give me five days to write this. Like I promised, about a week later…and here it is! Yay for me! Hope you like it!

Disclaimer:

I don't own the characters…and some of the plot belongs to the writer of Family Man.

Chapter 2-Where Am I?

Kagome woke up slowly, and tried to sit up. As her world spun, she clutched her head, moaning.

"Darn Inuyasha and his sword! Stupid spawn!" Kagome grumbled. Now she was in god-knows where in the middle of another forest! What luck! When she could see straight again, she stood up slowly, as to not offend her head anymore.

"Where am I?" Kagome wondered aloud. "Great. And I'm walking around in my pajamas, no less. What a great way to wake up. Smell the coffee!" Kagome muttered to herself. She continued walking, assuming it was better than just waiting there to be eaten by some demon. Maybe if she walked enough she would end up somewhere civilized.

About four hours later, Kagome tripped across a particularly nasty root of a tree and performed a face plant to the ground. _Shoot. Well, I'm really tired anyway. I think I'll just lay here as bait for any youkai that feel like eating me._ Kagome remained prostrated on the forest floor. She passed out from exhaustion several minutes later.

Meanwhile, with Inuyasha and Miroku…

"DARN IT!" Inuyasha roared. "How far could that weak girl go in such a short time?"

"Inuyasha…remember, she was flung into oblivion. She could be passed out somewhere obscure, or maybe she was flung farther than we thought. Or maybe she's awake and walking somewhere, looking for us. Can we stop? We've been searching this whole day…and I'm hungry. Come, we'll set up camp and have some Ramen Kagome left us. She wouldn't be happy if we went hungry for her." Miroku pleaded.

"Darn it, man! You make it sound like she died!" Inuyasha muttered, though he was just voicing his fears.

"Thank you." Miroku said to the clouds. He set up camp and started a fire. He boiled some water and poured into the cups of ramen and handed one to Inuyasha.

They ate in silence, both wondering why their party seemed to be splitting up. First it was Sango and Shippo, then it was Kagome. Why was life so unfair? They fell asleep for once; Inuyasha didn't feel the need to protect anyone, so he slept. Who needed the perverted monk anyway?

Back to Kagome…

"Wha-?" Kagome sat up, breathing hard. She had been having some, er, _disturbing_ dreams about Inuyasha and herself. She put her hand on the pillow beside her and froze.

_Why is there a pillow in the forest?_ Kagome thought, a sinking feeling growing in her stomach. She turned her head out of pure will and looked around the room she was in. The room was large, and furnished quite lavishly, with a large bureau in the corner, a large closet directly to the right of her, furs on the ground, and the huge futon she was on.

_Well, obviously not in the forest anymore…where am I?_ Kagome wondered. This had to be the home of a VERY rich person, considering all the furnishings around her. _I just hope the owner isn't awful…but he did save me and let me sleep._ Kagome thought, then as she tried to stretch her legs, she felt something constrict them.

"What?" Kagome asked, looking down at her legs. Someone had bandaged them up. "But…that shouldn't constrict my leg like that…" Kagome looked around for the culprit. What she found did not please her in the least bit.

"THE CREEP HAD THE AUDACITY TO CHAIN ME?" Kagome roared in fury. Not even Inuyasha would dream of that! Kagome wasn't chained to the bed, however; actually, she wasn't chained to anything, as far as she could tell. She was merely upset that she would be chained at all.

"So, what's the point of chaining me to nothing…?" Kagome scratched her head. While thinking, she felt the result of her kidneys and looked around to see if there was a bathroom anywhere. She saw a door to her left and tried to get up. Fortunately for her bladder, Kagome was right in her assessment that she wasn't chained to the bed. When she got up to investigate the door, she found that the chain was only the attachment part; it looked a lot like an anklet. And, the cuff had padding around the inside so as to not chaff her ankle.

_Well, at least he's a considerate prison guard._ Kagome thought dryly as she opened the door. What she found was a bathroom, much to her appreciation. _Thank kami!_

When she was done, she walked back to her bed and sat down. She was bored. Maybe she could go outside her room; she figured it was the door on her right that was slightly ajar. She got up and walked to her door, peeking out curiously. The hall she saw seemed to go on forever, stretching into the vast beyond.

_Oh well, might as well get lost while I'm in here._ Kagome resolved as she stepped out of the room. _It's really empty._

"Hello?" Kagome called out, hoping that someone would be here to inform her about everything.

No one answered.

"Great. Nice to meet you too." Kagome muttered darkly. She continued down the corridor until she came to a junction, where there was another hallway cutting into the one she was currently going down. She decided to turn left.

The only sounds around her were her footsteps as she walked slowly down the hall, looking at the paintings hanging on the wall. _Yup, definitely rich here_. Kagome thought. She came to a stop in front of a particularly elaborate painting, admiring it. She stood on her toes to get a better look at it when she heard a voice.

"So, if you think that I will…" the voice was deep and calm.

Kagome squeaked, thinking the man was behind her and fell forward, trying to catch herself before she hit the painting with her hands. However, instead of smacking against the wall like she expected, she felt the painting give way and it swung open, giving Kagome the perfect chance to find herself prostrate on the floor, again.

_Oh crap. I'm really in for it now. Not only did I just damage that painting, I broke the wall too! Gosh, I've gotten fatter than I thought._ Kagome thought, getting up and smacking her forehead with her hand.

"Stupid me!" she muttered to herself. She opened her eyes to see something she didn't expect to see, and she wouldn't have wanted to see it either, had she known.

"What, mortal, do you think you are doing in this Sesshomaru's study?" the golden eyed man asked with deadly calm, raising his eyebrow.

"AACCCK!" Kagome shrieked and quickly tried to back away and promptly fell over again, and nearly hit her head on the ground.

Sesshomaru merely looked at Kagome with his usual blank face.

After rubbing her head, Kagome saw Sesshomaru's face and said, "What?"

Sesshomaru almost winced as the sharp voice of Kagome's question hit his ears rather unpleasantly. However, he stopped himself and stared at Kagome again.

"Ano…Sesshomaru-sama…why am I here?" Kagome asked quietly.

_At least the girl has manners. It appears my brother's wench seems to not have picked up his habits._ Sesshomaru thought passingly.

"You are here because you are here. You do not need an answer." Sesshomaru turned around to face his desk. "Leave, this Sesshomaru grows tired of your company."

Kagome got up ungracefully and stood there, awed at Sesshomaru's lack of manners. Where had this guy grown up? What a snob!

"I'll leave, but, I'm not coming back. Tell me where the exit is to this castle, and I'll gladly divest you of my presence, permanently, mind you. I need to get back to Inuyasha and Miroku." Kagome said, just as coldly as Sesshomaru's last speech.

"Keep walking straight, after you exit my study. You shall find what you seek." Sesshomaru said, not facing her.

"Thank you for taking care of me while I was injured, Sesshomaru-sama." Kagome bowed and left, pulling the painting with her. "What a cold—" Kagome stopped herself. Sesshomaru's hearing was probably good enough to her what she would have said. She followed Sesshomaru's directions and came to two big stone doors.

"Now how am I gonna open this up?" Kagome wondered out loud.

No one answered.

"Maybe if I push…" Kagome strained against the doors, and, surprisingly, they gave way, showing her an overcast non-descript day. "How lovely."

She walked outside, but as she was lifting up her left foot, she tripped and fell, catching herself before she smacked her head with the stone path.

"Ack!" Kagome uttered before she went down. _I'm seeing floors way too often. _What had she tripped on? As she got up, she tried to walk outside again, but yet again fell on her face. What in sam hill was blocking her way? She checked again to see that there was nothing, and was very confused when she saw her "anklet" glowing.

"What in Inuyasha's boots…?" Kagome bent down to inspect the chain. It was glowing a steady purple, and Kagome could not raise her left foot up for the life of her.

"Shoot!" Kagome tried to pull her leg up, but it refused to budge. "SESSHOMARU!" Kagome called. Meanwhile, she tried to get away by inching her right leg out of the door. Pretty soon, she was in a near-split position, and she fell over, supporting herself on her hands. "HELP!"

"What?" Sesshomaru landed about a foot away from her. "Are you not able to leave?"

"Don't act to pleased with yourself. Take off this chain, now!" Kagome yelled at Sesshomaru.

"I cannot."

"What?"

"I am not able to remove your binding."

"What? You put it on! Now take it off!" Kagome snapped.

"I did not put it on. When this Sesshomaru found you on my forest floor, you already had the thing on you." Sesshomaru said.

"Whatever. Why can't I move my foot?" Kagome demanded.

"It seems to be a binding spell. If I had known that you would be bound the first building you were placed in, I would not have placed you here, no matter what Rin had said." Sesshomaru frowned. He did not want to be bothered by this girl. He had only taken care of her because Rin had insisted. Now they were stuck with her.

Kagome stared at Sesshomaru. That little girl could influence Sesshomaru so much? She thought Sesshomaru hated humans. Her face turned into a frown as she thought.

_This girl is too tiresome._ Sesshomaru thought.

"Well, are you gonna help me up?" Kagome asked, her arms shaking a little.

"This Sesshomaru does not help humans."

"What about Rin?" Kagome challenged.

"Who said my name?" Rin asked, bounding in, looking for Sesshomaru. "Sesshomaru-sama!" she yelled happily and clung to his legs.

_Not now, Rin._ Sesshomaru could not appear weak in front of this stubborn human. He looked down at the small girl currently attached to him. His eyes softened a little bit and he said,

"Rin, Kagome has fallen down, can you help her up?" his voice was gentle.

"Sure, Sesshomaru-sama! I like Kagome-sama." Rin hopped from Sesshomaru and ran over the Kagome and helped her up. As Kagome got up, she got tripped up with Rin and as she was trying to avoid stepping on Rin, she fell forward again, getting a lovely view of Sesshomaru's feet.

If she had looked up then, she could have seen the amusement lurking behind Sesshomaru's eyes, but obviously, she was preoccupied. Cursing her bad luck, she was about to get up, when she saw something interesting.

"Ano…Sesshomaru-sama? Why do you have a chain on your ankle too?" Kagome asked, confused.

"What are you talking about, human?" Sesshomaru demanded.

"You have something just like mine." Kagome answered.

Sesshomaru could detect no lie in her voice, but he refused to look at it there. He remained standing, impassive.

_Why doesn't he look at it?_ Kagome wondered. She reached out and touched the piece of metal, examining it.

When Sesshomaru felt Kagome's fingers brush his ankle, the touch caused a shiver to run up his spine. _What is this infernal feeling?_ Reacting quickly, Sesshomaru pulled his leg away from Kagome's hands.

"Why are you touching this Sesshomaru? You had no permission." Sesshomaru said coldly. He would figure out the significance of this girl later. Right now he was too unnerved by the sensation of her fingers on his ankle. He could still feel them there, lightly brushing his leg just a little above the ankle-bone. He turned around and walked off.

"Rin, take care of Kagome. Show her around. It seems she will be staying for a while." Sesshomaru called back to Rin.

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama." Rin replied. Rin took Kagome's hand and pulled her up. "Let's go find Jaken and play with him!"

Kagome let the little girl drag her around, looking for the toad-like creature called "Jaken." Why had Sesshomaru had a binding just like hers? What was he bound to?

Sesshomaru returned to his study and sat down, confused. _Why had that girl's touch made me feel like that?_ As he sat pondering, he suddenly realized that he wanted to feel her touch again. As he discovered that, he immediately squashed feeling to seek her out. He needed to kill something. _Must go and patrol my lands. I'll leave Ah-Un to take care of Rin. I'll need Jaken. I don't trust him alone with the two female humans._ Sesshomaru flew off with a determination.

"Rin?" Kagome asked tiredly, panting. They had been playing tag and both were currently sitting on the grass, exhausted.

"Huh?" Rin answered.

"Is there anywhere where I can, uh, bathe?" Kagome asked.

"Yes! Your room should have a hot spring…I'll show you!" Rin jumped up and grabbed Kagome's hand. Again, Kagome was forced to her feet and was dragged behind Rin as she excitedly made her way to Kagome's room.

"Here!" Rin said proudly, opening the door to Kagome's personal hot spring.

_Thank kami it's private…I was worried about demon's sense of modesty, or should I say, lack there of._ Kagome silently thanked her lucky stars, raising her head up with tears running down her cheeks.

"Uh, Kagome-sama?" Rin asked.

"W-wha?" Kagome turned around; she had forgotten about Rin. She blushed, she must have made a weird sight.

"Are you okay?" Rin asked.

"Yes, why?" Kagome asked.

"Well, you were crying, and Sesshomaru said people only cry when they are sad…or when they are hurt. But I don't believe him when he says that people cry when they are hurt…I've seen Inuyasha-baka be hurt, and he doesn't cry, even when he has a huge hole through his stomach!" Rin's eyes lit up as she talked about Inuyasha.

"Uh, do you mean Inuyasha-_sama_?" Kagome asked.

"No…Sesshomaru-sama told me to call him Inuyasha-baka." Rin said innocently.

"Right. Uh, I want to take a bath…could you go find Jaken or Sesshomaru-sama and play with them for a little bit? I'll be done in a while." Kagome asked.

"Sure!" Rin inhaled and Kagome closed her hands over her ears; over this day she learned that Rin only inhaled that deeply to yell loudly or speak a lot really fast. "SESSHOMARU-SAMA!" and with that, Rin ran off to find him.

Kagome took the opportunity to think things over. Why had Sesshomaru let Rin affect him so? It even appeared that he had a soft spot for Rin as well. Kagome smirked as she imagined the cold lord of the west smiling at Rin like a proud father. That would be a sight to see. She sank into the water, hissing as the hot water burned her skin at first.

"Ahhh…" Kagome sighed. Hot water was so beautiful. Especially after a stressful day like this. Suddenly, as she was washing her hair with some soap she found in the room, she felt extremely tired. Yawning, she went under the water to remove the soap from her hair and came back up. She closed her eyes and dozed, feeling completely safe for the first time in weeks.

"SESSHOMARU-SAMA!" Rin cried as she burst into his study. To her surprise, he wasn't there. "JAKEN!" Rin yelled. "HAVE YOU SEEN SESSHOMARU-SAMA?"

No one answered. Rin cocked her head, and just as she was about to go play with Ah-Un, she heard a crash as a being was thrown into the main room. Curious, she went to go investigate. When she got there, she was completely shocked to see Sesshomaru dusting himself off as he got up, muttering curses under his breath.

"Sesshomaru-sama? Why do you talk like Inuyasha-baka?" Rin asked. Only Inuyasha said those words, she thought.

Sesshomaru caught himself before he said something he would regret and closed his eyes, focusing for a moment. Okay, the pull was coming from that room. While he had been hunting down a lesser youkai, he had suddenly felt a pull. He tried to resist, but the more he resisted, the harder he was pulled. Finally, he was thrown into his castle.

"I have something to attend to, Rin. Please wait for Jaken and tell him I am NOT to be bothered." Sesshomaru instructed as he went towards the pull. He looked down and looked at his ankle and saw that his binding was glowing a bright blue, though the light seemed to be flickering as he got closer to whatever had called him.

_This is seriously irritating. I feel the need to kill even more._ Sesshomaru thought darkly. He threw open the door and realized he was in the girl's room.

_Why is the pull coming from here?_ He looked the across the room and saw the door and felt the energy emanating strongly from inside. He threw open the door to see an interesting sight. The girl was asleep in the hot spring and her binding on her ankle was also flickering bright blue.

_Surely this…this THING does not want me to…?_ Sesshomaru thought. He walked toward her and the closer he got, the more the light died out. _I refuse_. Sesshomaru thought. With that thought being finished, Sesshomaru was thrust forward into the water right towards Kagome. _Great._ _Just my luck._

Sesshomaru closed his eyes as he hit the warm water. He waited for Kagome to wake up and shriek at him again, but to his surprise she didn't wake up. _What in Inutashio's grave is up with her?_ Sesshomaru decided to degrade himself and say,

"Human, awake."

Kagome did not stir.

_Okay, she's completely ignoring me. That is not acceptable. She must be punished._ Sesshomaru advanced on Kagome. He stopped inches from her face. He raised his hand to slap her face, but the binding on his ankle had other ideas. Sesshomaru's foot and balance was taken from under him and he fell right on top of Kagome. His lips came into contact with hers before he could catch himself. That fact itself made Sesshomaru's eyes flash with rage.

_I do not believe I just kissed a human. _Sesshomaru was more upset that he had lost his balance. With an inaudible huff Sesshomaru got out of the water. Whatever that stupid chain on his ankle wanted, it got, for it was no longer bothering him.

Kagome yawned. Wait, was that Sesshomaru she saw stepping out of the bath? Kagome shook her head as naughty thoughts entered her mind as she saw his chest and lower body outlined by his thin robe. Bad Kagome! _This is NOT the time for this!_ Sesshomaru turned around.

"Do not fall asleep in the bath again." With that, Sesshomaru disappeared.

"Wha?" Kagome said, confused. "I need to get out and do something."

Sesshomaru exited the room, dripping wet and wearing the biggest scowl possible on his face. He went to his quarters and sat on the bed, his eyes narrowing. The events that had just taken place had been completely unacceptable. However, what disturbed him more was that his youkai was telling him to return to her; it _craved_ her. What nonsense. Sesshomaru was in charge, not his body, his feelings, not even his youkai, but him, and him alone.

_And I still need to kill something._ Sesshomaru thought grimly. He would go kill the girl, he decided. Not only would it cure his craving for blood, but also rid his youkai's craving for _her._ Without another thought, Sesshomaru got up and went in search of Kagome.

_Why does this girl suddenly bother me?_ Sesshomaru thought briefly before entering her room. He shook his head, disgusted with himself.

"Show yourself, human, and this Sesshomaru will show you mercy by making your death painless."

Kagome froze when she heard his voice. Why was he here? And WHY did he want to suddenly kill her? She slowly and quietly hid in the closet and held her breath, hoping he would think she wasn't there.

Sesshomaru grinned ferally; so she wanted to hide, did she? Well, this would just make the hunt all the more enjoyable. He sharpened his senses, and heard the shallow breaths of Kagome come from the closet. _Bingo._

He glided over to the closet, opened it soundlessly, reached in, and grabbed Kagome by the throat. He held her out in front of him, dangling in mid air.

"W-what do y-you w-want?" Kagome coughed out, her throat constriction was making her choke.

"You. Will. Die." Sesshomaru tightened his hold and waited for the girl to fall unconscious. He couldn't kill her in here. Rin came and went everywhere except for his room. He could not risk having Rin discover the dead body.

_Then don't kill her._ A part of his mind said.

He ignored it.

When he got to his room, he threw the girl on the bed. Flexing his claws, he felt the poison start to flow from them. This was how it was supposed to feel. He was about to lash out at the girl when he was thrown clear across the room.

_What is this power?_ Sesshomaru thought as he collided with the wall. Closing his eyes in an effort to regain his temper, he looked down at his ankle, which, sure enough, was glowing. However, it was not glowing blue this time, but rather a bright purple. _What is this damnable contraption?_

Suddenly, Sesshomaru bared his fangs, and in a flash of white light, he grabbed the binding and tried to rip it off. It refused to budge, much to the anger and frustration of Sesshomaru. In anger of being thwarted too often in too short a time, Sesshomaru proceeded to take out his fury upon his furniture, shredding his pillows, breaking his desk, slicing his chair, and was just about to destroy the bed when he was again thrown across the room. This time, Sesshomaru was too far gone to control himself; he roared in frustration.

This woke Kagome up from her knocked-out stupor. (A/N: again, I don't know how noise wakes up an unconscious person, but bear with me.) She sat up and thought she was in her own room, forgetting momentarily what had happened previously. She quickly assessed that she wasn't as she heard Sesshomaru's roar. Frightened, she looked over at the enraged Tai-Youkai sitting on the floor.

She felt a strange urge to go over to him, but then decided against it; she still valued her life. Suddenly, right after that decision, she was thrown into the direction of Sesshomaru. _Wha?_ _What's happening?_ was Kagome's only thought as she was placed rather ungently on top of Sesshomaru.

"What do you think you are doing, human?" Sesshomaru asked dangerously.

Kagome blushed as she felt his voice vibrate through his body and to hers.

"Nothing! I can't get off!" Kagome said.

"You will get off. Now." Sesshomaru's threat could be heard in his voice.

"I can't!" Kagome repeated, desperately trying to remover herself from Sesshomaru. Unfortunately, the vibrations of his voice were causing Kagome to be very distracted.

Sesshomaru place his hand on Kagome and tried to lift her off of him, completely intending to kill her for touching his person without his permission, not that she ever would have gotten his permission anyway. He failed.

"Why me?" Kagome asked the ceiling.

"What is this expression you use?" Sesshomaru asked, tired for the first time in his life.

"Huh? Oh, I was asking why this was happening to me of all people. I don't think I did anything to upset the higher powers." Kagome explained.

"Stupid human." Sesshomaru snorted.

"Don't call me stupid, stuck-up prig!" Kagome retorted.

Sesshomaru merely raised a delicate eyebrow at her outburst.

"Why are we still stuck to each other?" Kagome asked tiredly after a losing a staring contest with Sesshomaru.

"If this Sesshomaru knew we would not be in this predicament." Sesshomaru said, bored.

"Uh, so what are we going to do?" Kagome asked timidly.

"We are going to get comfortable, for as you are stuck upon me, I also cannot move. We are apparently stuck here for a while." Sesshomaru grabbed Kagome and arranged it so she was straddling him. He then decided that the position was not comfortable, and then rotated her so that she was sitting in his lap, facing away from him. He placed his arms around her and sighed; to tell the truth, this wasn't that unpleasant at all.

_I'm disturbing myself._ Sesshomaru thought. _How ironic; I came to kill her, but end up sleeping with her by force instead._ He frowned at the implications the thought caused.

After about an hour, Sesshomaru felt Kagome fall asleep. He stared out across the room and cursed his fate; what was more humiliating than having a human fall asleep upon him? Maybe he could get her off now…nope. Still no luck. He leaned his head back on the wall and closed his eyes. He wasn't going anywhere for a while, apparently. It couldn't hurt to sleep for a while; besides, any noise or slight disturbance would wake him anyway.

A slamming door caused Sesshomaru's eyes to snap open. He scanned the room and found nothing there. He listened intently for a moment and located the sound to be coming from the kitchen. It must have been the servants cooking for Rin. He closed his eyes again but felt movement upon his body and looked down. Kagome was shifting around, wait, no, she was _snuggling_ deeper into Sesshomaru's embrace-like hold he had around her.

_What is she doing? Does she not fear me?_ Sesshomaru thought. He was about to distance himself from her when he heard her say,

"Stop moving; I'm trying to sleep." Her hand reached up and pushed his head gently back to lean on the wall. "Shhhhh…"

_Is this girl awake? If she is, she will DIE. _Sesshomaru listened to her breathing. She was asleep. _Odd_.

Her hand retracted and fell back to her side. Sesshomaru closed his eyes again and fell into a light doze. His last thought was _I wonder what the gods have planned for us_.

Sesshomaru woke when he felt the binding on his ankle vibrating. He looked down at it and it was the same color as when it called him to Kagome. He ignored it for a while, and analyzed his feelings. Somehow he felt extremely comfortable and relaxed; something he wasn't often. He felt his whole being in agreement to his position, which was, currently, having his arm around a sleeping and deeply snuggled Kagome. He was confused, but somehow it felt like the most right thing in the world.

Suddenly, he saw a strange woman come into the room. She was short yet taller than all around her, ugly yet the most beautiful thing on earth, and she seemed old yet ageless. He narrowed his eyes at her and demanded,

"Who are you? Why did this Sesshomaru not notice your entrance to the castle?"

"You are not in a position to be demanding information, Lord Sesshomaru." The woman said, her voice quiet yet inexplicably loud on his ears.

Sesshomaru merely narrowed his eyes further at her.

"You have been deemed unworthy in the heavens, Lord Sesshomaru. You do not value life, and you have not learned to value it either, as your father had hoped for you to do by giving you Tensaiga. Yet you have ignored it. You are a powerful and cunning leader, but do not know how to deal with the most important problem at hand. Do you know what this is?"

"This Sesshomaru does not."

"Yourself. You have everything, yet you give nothing and learn nothing. You are to be taught now, or everything will be taken away. I am your advocate; I have one chance to make you learn." The woman then started to mutter something under her breath and her hands began to turn bright blue; the same shade as on his ankle binding.

"What are you doing?" Sesshomaru demanded. His gaze turned suspicious. Suddenly, the woman threw her hands at Sesshomaru so quickly that he didn't have time to dodge it. The light hit him and his vision went white for a minute. When he could see again, the woman was gone. He lifted his arms and inspected them; wait, arms? When did he gain his right (A/N: I really forget which arm got cut off…I'm just saying it's his me if I'm wrong…and I'll change in later chapters.) arm back? He moved it all around and smiled; this was a gift he was thankful for.

He looked down at Kagome and suddenly said,

"Get up."

She didn't stir.

"Right." Sesshomaru turned her head to him and kissed her fully on the lips. He had gained the knowledge that she had a curse that she would fall asleep randomly in the day and only a kiss would wake her up. He didn't know how he gained this information, but he did.

Kagome yawned and got up to stretch. She then turned to him and said,

"Come on, love, let's go find Rin."

Sesshomaru sat there, completely confused. Had she just called him using a term of endearment? Did she just say _love_?

"Are you coming? Rin will be sad if we miss her engagement dance with Kohaku." Kagome reminded Sesshomaru.

Engagement dance? Rin? What was happening? Sesshomaru began to get an eye-twitch. To Kohaku? The boy that tried to harm her? Wasn't the boy under Naraku's control?

"Sesshomaru?" Kagome asked.

He decided to end this right now. He grabbed her by the throat and said, "When did this Sesshomaru give you permission to be so casual with his name?"

Kagome's eyes went wide as she was lifted into the air. "What's wrong with you? First we fall asleep, and then you wake up and act like you don't even remember the last two years!"

"The last two years? This Sesshomaru is curious as to what happened. Inform me, human." Sesshomaru said, his eyes flashing dangerously.

Kagome rolled her eyes and replied, "Okay, I'll play along. January two years ago: we met when I fell through the well, we fought, we later talked, and then we mated after you professed your love for me about three weeks later. Three months later: March: we found Rin, you saved her, and we raised her. Later we come into contact with a demon-slayer named Sango and her husband Miroku. They have a little brother, Kohaku. We were searching for Rin and we found her playing with Kohaku. We kept in contact, after the initial wariness, and they have become good friends. December: relationship between Rin and Kohaku is still developing. I meet Inuyasha, the brother you seem to despise, and you fight him for some sword that you want. That's in February. And we've just been weaving in and out through life from then." Kagome pulled on Sesshomaru's arms, trying to make him put her down.

"Liar." Sesshomaru snarled. He put her down, though.

"Whatever. Just come along, Rin specified that she especially wanted **your** presence at the dance." Kagome then muttered something and a purplish bluish light sprung from her fingers and surrounded Sesshomaru. He found himself being taken by force to find Rin.

Snarling, Sesshomaru tried to break the binding of light that had wrapped itself around him. He discovered that he couldn't break it however and quit trying, sulking then like a little child. Kagome saw this and laughed gently.

"You never did like when I learned to do that, did you?" Kagome asked.

Sesshomaru was momentarily distracted when he heard Kagome's laugh. He only remembered hearing such joy in Rin's laugh. "No." Sesshomaru caught himself and decided to play along, lest she pull out more tricks to humiliate him. He suddenly found himself released and was dropped to the floor on his feet.

"I don't like using it, because it means that I'm making you do something you don't want to do. Will you come willingly?" Kagome asked.

"Yes. This Sesshomaru has a wish to see Rin." Sesshomaru said. He started to walk, when he suddenly felt Kagome reach for his hand. She grasped it and walked with him. He was very surprised at this. Why was she holding his hand? Even if they _were _mates, mates never showed signs of affection like this. Maybe it was a human thing.

He followed Kagome's lead out to the courtyard to see a curious sight: Inuyasha was standing in the middle with scowl on his face and he was yelling at a wolf-youkai. On the sidelines were the monk/demon slayer couple Kagome had talked about, and then there was the freckled boy named Kohaku holding Rin's hand, watching the scene.

"Get outta here you wimpy wolf! Your stench will kill everyone around here!" Inuyasha yelled.

"I wouldn't have followed you if you hadn't forsaken the hunt we were on together, you stinky dog-turd! You left me in the middle of fight with a giant turtle youkai! What, are you afraid of _turtles_?" the wolf yelled back.

"No! Kouga, look, my niece is getting engaged! Of course I had to leave and see that!" Inuyasha yelled. "And, what, was the _turtle_ too strong for you?"

"Dream on, odiferous hanyou; I was just offended that you would just leave me like that! Not that I needed you anyway!" Kouga shouted.

"Kouga-kun!" Kagome shouted happily. "It's so good to see you!" she ran up and gave him a hug. She then turned to Inuyasha. "It's good to see you too!"

"Feh." Inuyasha said, blushing. Kagome was the only female to realize he was alive.

Kouga wrapped his arms around Kagome's shoulders and said, "Kagome, is it true that Rin is getting engaged?"

Kagome smiled up at Kouga. "Yeah, she's been real excited to have everyone here…she tried to get a pigeon to send a message to you…but I think it was eaten."

Kouga scratched his head. "I think I remember that pigeon. Yeah, I did eat it." Kouga then blushed. "Oops. But, here I am!"

"I'm sure Rin will be happy." Kagome said, again her happiness evident in her voice.

Watching the three out in the center of the courtyard, Sesshomaru suddenly got a fiercely possessive feeling when Kagome and Kouga embraced. When Kouga then proceeded to put his arms around Kagome's shoulders, Sesshomaru actually growled. He was about to rush out there and put a stop to it, when he realized something.

_Am I jealous? Why? And just where am I? I was not here when I fell asleep. This world must be an illusion or a trick. It also seems as if Kouga and Inuyasha are good friends. It must be that goddess that came down to talk to me; this is all her doing. Well, we'll just see what she wants._ Sesshomaru decided.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Rin yelled as she ran up to Sesshomaru.

_At least she hasn't changed that much._ Sesshomaru thought as she collided with him, clinging to his clothes.

"Hello, Sesshomaru-sama." Kohaku bowed.

"Kohaku." Sesshomaru nodded. He would play along and find out what exactly was happening later. And, if what Kagome said was true, this was the person Rin loved; he couldn't kill him; that would make her upset.

"Rin! Come look who is here! Inuyasha-kun and Kouga-kun!" Kagome yelled over to her daughter.

"Uncle Inuyasha!" Rin yelled as she detangled herself from Sesshomaru and ran over to Inuyasha and attacked him much as she had attacked Sesshomaru.

"Hey kid. How are you? You excited?" Inuyasha said dotingly as he rubbed Rin's head.

"Yeah! I'm so glad you're here!" Rin said happily. "And you brought cousin Kouga!" She got off of Inuyasha and ran over to Kouga and attached herself to his leg.

"Congratulations, Rin!" Kouga said, beaming.

"Let's go for a run, Kouga-kun!" Rin said.

"Don't you think you're a bit old for that? You are ten now." Kouga said, laughing and picking her up.

"No!" Rin said stubbornly. She hadn't grown that much taller, and the only sign that she had matured was that she had lost her baby fat and had developed her mind. Her favorite thing to do was still to have Kouga run around with her clinging onto his legs.

"Come on, Rin. Not now, you'll delay everything more. Later tonight, okay honey?" Kagome said, picking Rin up.

"Okay." Rin said, smiling at her mother. She turned back to Kouga and said seriously, "Promise, Kouga-kun?"

"Promise." Kouga laughed, shaking Rin's hand.

"Let's clear out of here, Kouga-kun, Inuyasha-kun." Kagome grabbed Inuyasha's and Kouga's hands and dragged them out of the circle. "This isn't your day, you know." Kagome teased.

They went back to Sesshomaru and turned around to watch. While they were watching the two spin and dance around, Kagome felt a pair of arms snake around her waist. Thinking it was Kouga, she said,

"Look, you're being a little forward, don't you think?"

"Not at all." Sesshomaru whispered in her ear. His youkai was now mainly in control, and only because of his extensive self-control did Sesshomaru hold the last critical thread of sanity. His youkai started to calm down after he had come in contact with Kagome.

Kagome jumped a little when she heard Sesshomaru say that. She didn't think he would do this since he had been in such a weird mood lately. However, thanking her lucky stars that Sesshomaru had returned to normal, she lay her head back on his shoulder and sighed contentedly.

Sesshomaru's youkai was now thoroughly content and happy now that it's mate was paying attention to it now. Sesshomaru was still controlled by his youkai, but now it was happy, and not jealous or angry.

When the dance finished, the pair bowed and exited the circle. Then, Kohaku said,

"Rin, I have pledged my faithfulness to you completely, and I am yours to command." Kohaku said, kneeling before Rin.

"Kohaku-kun, I will pledge my faithfulness to you completely, and I also am yours to command." Rin kneeled to come to the same level as Kohaku.

"And, these two, pledging themselves to each other, are now as one, but still have a time to wait. They will grow closer as they get older, but until they are completely in harmony and think as one, they cannot be mated. They are now engaged!" Miroku said, taking part as the monk of the ceremony.

The servants cheered and threw rice and flowers in the air. Inuyasha and Kouga went over the say hello to Sango and Miroku as well as to talk to the two. That left Sesshomaru and Kagome alone.

"Let's go inside." Sesshomaru said.

"But, shouldn't we wait for the others?" Kagome asked, a little worried.

"They can take care of themselves. Let's go inside." Sesshomaru repeated.

"Ok." Kagome followed Sesshomaru inside. When they passed the big doors, Sesshomaru turned Kagome around and slashed his lips against hers. She gasped in surprise and Sesshomaru merely took that as a chance to deepen the kiss. Kagome wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her toes to gain better access. Sesshomaru simply picked her up to even the height factor.

When they broke apart, Kagome was gasping for breath. What was that all about? She leaned against the wall, panting and eyeing Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru himself was a little short for breath and was confused. What had brought that on? Why did he have the sudden desire to kiss Kagome? It must be the new place he was in, and his youkai wanted it as well.

"Well, what was that all about? We don't have time right now…we will have guests inside here soon." Kagome demanded once she could breath and think straight again.

"This Sesshomaru does not know. Let us return outside." Sesshomaru walked briskly outside and left Kagome standing inside, her hands on her hips.

"The demon will never learn, will he?" Kagome muttered as she followed him, shaking her head. By the time she reached Rin, she decided that she would get back at Sesshomaru later for toying with her like that.

"Honey, would you like to call everyone inside for some food?" Kagome asked sweetly.

"Sure, mom. Hey, there's food inside!" Rin yelled.

Kohaku bent down and whispered something in her ear that made Rin blush.

"Sorry. Uh…there are refreshments and drinks inside if you would like it." Rin said.

"Looks like Kohaku will teach Rin some etiquette." Kagome whispered in Sesshomaru's ear.

"It seems so." Sesshomaru replied back.

Sango then walked over and paused to talk to Kagome before they all went inside.

"Can we talk?" she asked.

"Sure. Sesshomaru, do you think you could play 'host' for now until I come in?" Kagome turned to Sesshomaru, pleading.

Sesshomaru merely turned around and headed into the castle.

"He hasn't changed, has he?" Sango asked dryly.

"No. But he has been acting a bit strange lately." Kagome replied worriedly. "Today he forgot everything that had happened in the last two years! It made me really worried; maybe it's because he's stressed out about Rin." Kagome sighed.

"Hmmmm…that's really odd." Sango agreed.

"So, what's up with you and Miroku?" Kagome asked.

"His eye is starting to wander! Whenever we go out to the town, he's always flirting with the waitresses, winking at the shop girls, and he doesn't really pay attention to me anymore!" Sango complained. "And I don't know why!"

"Uh…" Kagome said, trailing off.

"What?"

"Have you tried attracting him back? After all, he must have thought of you as the most beautiful woman alive if he married you." Kagome reasoned.

"What do you mean, attracting him back?" Sango asked.

"Well, maybe dressing a little more, er, feminine sometimes, doing special things for him, and stuff like that." Kagome said, waiting for the eruption from Sango.

It never came.

"You really think I should try that?" Sango asked.

_She must be desperate. If I had said that any other time I would be deaf from her yelling at me by now_. Kagome thought.

"Sure! At dinner tonight we'll dress you up! I guarantee that Miroku won't be able to keep his eyes off of you!" Kagome promised.

"Do you really it'll help?" Sango asked, unsure.

"Yes. Come on, let's go inside, the love-birds will be waiting for us." Kagome pulled on Sango's hand and led her inside.

A/N:

Okay, long chapter here….kinda just went wherever the story took me. If you don't like it…well, sorry. But, I hope you guys will be nice enough to leave me a review and I have a favor to ask of you all….is the word for what Sesshomaru wears a _hakema_? I wasn't sure about that, so I didn't write it, though I wanted to. And, just to remind you, tell me about Sesshomaru's arm….which one was cut off? But, I'll get started on the next chapter….not really sure how long the story's gonna be, but I'll see where my imagination takes me! Thanks for reading….review please!

FongSaiYuk319


	3. Miroku's and Sesshomaru's dreams

I Didn't Do It!

A/N:

So, here I am again…hope you guys have enjoyed it so far. Somehow, in some of these scenes, especially between Sesshomaru and Kagome, and in the future between Miroku and Sango, I'm not so comfortable writing them. So…if you feel like the "intimate" scenes are horrible, that's the reason. This is rated T for slightly more _ nasty_…er, subjects…so, if you feel like I need to, erm, _up_ the rating…just let me know…I'm not going to write a lemon…it's a little to perverted for me, sorry. So, if you are here to read lemons, this isn't where they are going to be. Also, the references to the lemons are happening between two _married/mated_ couples...but, back to the story, eh?

Disclaimer: None of the Inuyasha characters belong to me...not that I wouldn't _love_ having Sesshomaru all to myself…drool…and the some of the plot _ideas_, not plot itself, but plot ideas belong to the script-writer of the movie Family Man.

Chapter 3-Miroku's and Sesshomaru's Dreams Come True…Almost

After the receptions thingy, Kagome left the males to talk and had Sango help her clean up. This way they could talk privately as well.

"Miss…you should let us do that." One of the servants said.

"Huh? Oh, no, it's okay. I made this mess, I'll clean it up." Kagome replied. She always felt weird having the servants do all the work.

"Miss, it's our job. It's what we get paid for." The servant reminded.

"Oh, that's right. I'm sorry, here we'll get out of your way. Are you sure you don't need help?" Kagome asked.

"Yes, miss. Thank you anyway." The servant said, signaling the others that they could come and clear and mop.

Kagome walked to the gardens, taking Sango with her, who was currently laughing so hard she had trouble breathing.

"What's so funny?" Kagome asked.

"Y-y-you…" Sango wiped her eyes, trying to control her laughter.

"What about me?"

"You always try to clean up and stuff like that…that's why you have servants. What, in your time are you a maid?" Sango asked, still chuckling.

"No…it's just I've never gotten used to the fact that I have people to clean up for me. I just used to cleaning up for myself, setting up for myself, and stuff like that. At my house in my time, the whole family helps out with the chores like that." Kagome explained.

"Ah. Anyway, how's Sesshomaru?" Sango asked slyly.

"WHAT? How can you ask that in broad daylight?" Kagome yelped indignantly. "I'm not going to talk about that stuff in public!"

"This isn't in public. And I'm not asking for details, I'm just asking if he is good." Sango defended herself.

"I'm not talking about that." Kagome said stubbornly. "What if I turned the tables on you? How is Miroku?"

Sango was about to speak when she remembered something and blushed a bright red.

"Wow…he's that good?" Kagome asked in awe.

Sango nodded, still fighting her blush.

"Lucky woman." Kagome said. "Sesshomaru has been too moody lately for anything…well, mostly."

"Mostly? Tell me!" Sango prompted.

"Well, just before we invited everyone inside, Sesshomaru took me inside and kissed me. Harshly. I don't know what that was about." Kagome said, sighing confusedly.

"Hmmm…sounds like you have more of a husband problem than I do! And you were telling me about 'reattracting' my husband!" Sango snorted.

"Hey! I was just offering advice. You don't have to follow it if you don't want to!" Kagome huffed. She splashed water on Sango from the fountain.

"Oi!" Sango ducked and flung water at Kagome.

"Missed!" Kagome said triumphantly when she was suddenly drenched with water from head to toe. She looked up at the spout of the fountain and raised and eyebrow.

Sango burst into laughter. Kagome had dodged her water but had stepped under the source of water in the same time. The irony was killing Sango.

"I'm glad you think this is so funny." Kagome stepped out of the waterfall and assessed herself. "I need to go change. Excuse me." She walked towards her room.

"You do that. I'll stay here and laugh my head off." Sango said in-between her guffaws of laughter.

"Silly girl." Kagome muttered. She was sopping wet and all Sango could do was laugh! What if she caught hypothermia and died? Suddenly, Kagome realized how funny the situation must have looked and started to laugh herself. "I must have been quite the sight."

"You most certainly are." A voice came from behind her.

"What?" Kagome asked, turning around. Before she could identify the speaker she was blind-folded and being picked up. "Put me down!"

"I would, but my youkai demands you." The voice said, still masked as to confuse Kagome.

Kagome frowned beneath her mask; who was this? She could tell he was a demon, or at least he had some demon blood in him. That narrowed it down to Kouga, Inuyasha, or Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru had been acting too weird lately, it could be him. No, but she knew Sesshomaru's voice, this wasn't him. But, Kouga had been rather forward lately….no, it couldn't be him. Kouga had a specific smell about him, and this wasn't him. Inuyasha? Could it be him? It was the last possibility, and she didn't know him well enough to say it wasn't him.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome said uncertainly.

"Guess again." The voice said, smirking.

"Inuyasha is the only one left! You have to be Inuyasha!" Kagome asserted. Just then, she heard two voices float down the hall.

"DOG-TURD! Where are you!" Definitely Kouga.

"OVER HERE, YOU WIMPY WOLF!" Okay, that was Inuyasha.

But then, who was this?

"Who are you?"

"Your greatest." The voice replied.

"Greatest…what? Tormenter? Friend? What?" Kagome tried to identify the person by his personality.

"Simply, greatest. In everything." The voice replied arrogantly.

Okay, she knew that arrogance could only belong to one being in the entire world: Sesshomaru. But it wasn't his voice, though, he could have disguised it. And since when was Sesshomaru this romantic? _Never. The guy couldn't be romantic if his marriage was at stake. It practically killed him when he told me he loved me._ Kagome thought dryly.

She then heard a door open and she was thrown on the bed. She wasn't worried that the man would molest her; she had other means of protection, but rather she was disturbed because she couldn't identify her kidnapper. She sat up and pondered as she heard her captor removing his clothes. _What does he think he's doing? Even if it is Sesshomaru, he should know that I'm very capable of preventing someone from molesting me._

She heard the man try to come close to her but she threw up a barrier around herself and sent the man flying backwards. She heard him mutter and curse but she still couldn't identify the voice. It sounded very familiar, though. Almost like…no, it couldn't be! He wasn't of demon blood of any sort! And why did he make himself sound like Sesshomaru? Kagome narrowed her eyes behind her blind-fold. The letch was really too much!

"Really, Miroku, I thought you were higher than this." Kagome sighed. "What about Sango?" she heard the man pause as if caught. She removed her blind-fold and sighed. "Put your clothes back on."

Miroku nodded. He put them on while Kagome quickly faced the other wall.

"I should really kill you for trying this. What did you think Sesshomaru would do to you?" Kagome asked tiredly.

"Well…it was his idea." Miroku said, uncertain if he should tell Kagome and risk being barbequed by Sesshomaru or not and get fried by Kagome.

"WHAT?" Kagome shouted, outraged.

Okay, Miroku would much rather face Sesshomaru after Kagome was done with him than her. _Good decision, Miroku_ he applauded himself.

"Explain what Sesshomaru's plan was?" Kagome asked dangerously.

"Uh…he wanted…group…er…" Miroku trailed off, embarrassed.

"WHAT! That demon is SO dead!" Kagome left Miroku to himself and went in search of Sesshomaru. She found him with her miko powers to be in the guest room.

_If he is even doing anything remotely CLOSE to what I think he's doing, he is so going to be a roasted hot dog tonight!_ Kagome thought furiously. The audacity of this man had grown to a disturbingly high state. She burst into the guest room to find Sango in a similar state she had been in and then saw Sesshomaru naked.

"You. Get dressed and come with me. Now." Kagome ordered.

"Kagome?" Sango called, fear in her voice.

"You over-pompous, fluff-headed, stuck-up, snobbish, unintelligent, insensitive, ridiculously stupid, idiotic, cheating PERVERT!" Kagome yelled at Sesshomaru, who was currently redressing himself. "You did this to Sango? AND planned to have Miroku do the same to me?" Kagome went over the Sango and unbound her. Sango, realizing what must have happened, turned bright purple with rage.

"That monk is SO not going to be male for much longer!" Sango got up and went out of the room to find Miroku.

"Sango, he's in my room." Kagome called.

"Thanks." Sango called back.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at Sesshomaru. "Explain yourself! Lately you've been moody, strange. You blow hot then cold; act like I'm the most beautiful thing in the world, then treat me like the most worthless piece of _dirt_ in the world! What's your problem?"

"My problem?" Sesshomaru glided over to Kagome and grabbed her by the throat and lifted her in the air. "This Sesshomaru only has a problem with being told what to do, where to go, and being considered as an equal to such a low-life _scum_ such as yourself." Sesshomaru snarled.

"Interesting. All you just said could be reflected right back onto you. If the shoe fits, wear it." Kagome said.

"You dare reply with such disdain and lack of respect to this Sesshomaru?" Sesshomaru asked dangerously.

"Bite. Me." Kagome retorted, her eyes flashing.

"With pleasure." Sesshomaru then pulled her close. (A/N: sorry, it's so common for this type of scene to happen, but I couldn't help it! Yeah, "bite me" is corny too….but just bear with me. And Sesshomaru's only acting weird because he's been put into this odd world…it's just too darn _happy_ for Sesshomaru…he's really confused. And he's at the breaking point)

"What are you-ahhh—" Kagome stopped speaking as Sesshomaru's teeth came into contact with the place between her shoulder and neck. She fell unconscious.

Sesshomaru smirked evilly at Kagome's state of unconsciousness, licking the blood from her neck. The wench deserved it anyway, ordering him around like that.

"SESSHOMARU!"

Sesshomaru turned around at the sound of the voice. He saw the woman again.

"What do you want?" he asked, his calm demeanor returning to his features.

"What have you done? Do you want everything to be taken from you? Do you not learn ANYTHING?" the woman lamented.

"Where am I? Why am I here? Why are all the people acting like this?" Sesshomaru demanded.

"This was to show you what kind of life you could have if you learned to love. But, apparently you didn't learn anything. In fact, if I had let you continue, this world would have become real. You really have a way of mucking things up if you don't like it, don't you?" the woman put her head in her hands. "You don't know how to deal with all this happiness, do you? You don't belong here. Go home." The woman raised one arm and shot light out of it, blinding Sesshomaru again. "Just remember, this was your last chance to learn with my help. You are on your own now. Learn to love, Sesshomaru. It is the strongest weapon." The woman's voice was fading.

When Sesshomaru could see again, he saw that he was in the same position he had been when the woman had visited the first time.

_What was that woman talking about?_ Sesshomaru wondered. At least in that world he hadn't really been attached forcefully to this girl. And the Kagome in that world had been much more assertive and scary. At least, she would be scary if Sesshomaru ever got scared.

"Wake up." Sesshomaru ordered.

Kagome didn't move.

"You irritate this Sesshomaru." Sesshomaru bent down and kissed Kagome on the cheek. She started to stir. "Please remove yourself from me."

"Oh…sorry." Kagome got up and blushed. She started to brush off her clothes, looking down, avoiding Sesshomaru's gaze.

_I like this Kagome much better._ Sesshomaru decided. _The other one was too…experienced with life. This Kagome has retained her innocence._

"Come with me, the bindings on our ankles refuse to let us out of each other's presence." Sesshomaru ordered.

"How much distance can we have between each other?" Kagome asked, starting to inch slowly away from Sesshomaru. She surprised herself by being able to be a good five feet from Sesshomaru without being thrown back into him. "Gotcha."

"SESSHOMARU-SAMA!" Rin voice floated in.

"Rin!" Kagome called back.

"KAGOME-SAMA!" Rin called.

They waited for a moment for Rin to come in. When she did she was ran up to Sesshomaru but just before she was about to attach herself to his leg, she paused, confused. She looked then at Kagome, tilting her head up and to the side. Laughing, Kagome picked up Rin and put her on her shoulders.

"Rin wants Sesshomaru-sama too!" Rin said.

"Okay." Kagome moved besides Sesshomaru and put Rin on both of their shoulders.

Sesshomaru merely raised his eyebrow at Kagome's action. She was acting much too much like a mother to Rin than he approved of. He only objected to Kagome's motherly action because Rin saw him as her adopted father, and naturally a child would wonder why her adopted father and her adopted mother were not together. Sesshomaru would have wrinkled his nose in disgust at the thought if he hadn't had control over his emotional displays.

"Erm…Sesshomaru?" Kagome asked slowly. She really didn't want to upset Sesshomaru; the man was much too suddenly volatile for her tastes. At least with Inuyasha, he would have several signs of irritation. Sesshomaru merely killed you if you annoyed him without batting an eyelash.

Sesshomaru flicked his eyes at Kagome. She took it as a response.

"Rin wants to go outside and play with Ah-Un," Kagome said.

"Is there a problem with her request?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Well…she wants me to go with her." Kagome said reluctantly.

"Is there a problem with her request?" Sesshomaru repeated.

"Well…I'm kinda stuck to you," Kagome said really quietly.

"Then I will accompany Rin." Sesshomaru started to walk suddenly. Surprised, Kagome was jerked forward towards Sesshomaru. Rin giggled as she was carried in-between the two.

When Kagome caught up with Sesshomaru, she was panting. "You didn't have to do that!" Kagome said breathlessly.

"Do what?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Run off like that and leave me behind, knowing that we are bound together. Therefore, you knew that I would be jerked forward like that!" Kagome accused, making her strides longer in order to keep up with the smooth, almost gliding, Tai-Youkai's pace.

"You should respond faster, then." Sesshomaru picked up his pace, almost as if to purposely to annoy Kagome. However, his face was blank and Kagome could not see what he was thinking.

_Irritating, stuck-up idiot._ Kagome thought darkly. What caused anyone to be this cold and unemotional? And what made him such a stuck-up, arrogant, snobby priss? _But he's beautiful._ Her mind reasoned. Kagome brushed the thought aside. Just because someone looked good didn't mean their personality was any good.

When they reached the double doors Sesshomaru pushed the door open with ease. Kagome looked at how heavy the doors looked and then looked at Sesshomaru. He didn't look like he was jacked with his slim build. Perhaps it was all covered underneath his hakama and haori. Suddenly, Kagome realized she was checking him out and blushed a slight pink.

"What are you thinking, human?" Sesshomaru asked, startling Kagome out of her taunts.

"N-nothing!" Kagome spluttered, as if Sesshomaru had known exactly what she was thinking.

Sesshomaru allowed himself a tiny smirk that he had managed to fluster his human female "companion," of sorts, so easily. Unfortunately for Kagome, she was too busy scolding herself to notice. _Great, not only does he think you are weak because you are a human, now he thinks you're stupid and absent minded! _

"Let's go find flowers!" Rin squealed, taking Sesshomaru's hand and Kagome's hand in her hands, running towards a patch of periwinkle flowers. She let go of her grasp on their hands and began to pick the flowers in great bunches. Kagome laughed and sat down in the flowers, examining them. Sesshomaru stood tall, almost ignoring the little girls antics, but Kagome could see that Sesshomaru was still watching Rin out of the corner of his eye.

_It's so cute that Sesshomaru pretends not to care about Rin, but you can see that he does. Maybe it's not so evident, but he still shows it in his own way._ Kagome started to space out.

"Kagome-sama!" Rin said, bouncing around.

"E-eh?" Kagome said, looking up.

"I picked these flowers for you! Aren't they pretty?" Rin said, smiling up at her with a toothy grin.

"Yes!" Kagome smiled, taking the flowers offered up to her. She started to make them into a crown of some sorts while Rin left to go pick some more flowers in a deep red patch a little ways away.

The peaceful atmosphere was ruined by Kagome being jerked towards Sesshomaru again as he followed Rin.

"EGAD!" Kagome yelled as she was forcefully against Sesshomaru, knocking him over.

Rin heard a sound and looked up to see Sesshomaru and Kagome on top of each other, each scowling and trying to get themselves untangled from each other. She tilted her head to the side, confused. Why were they on the ground and like that?

"Get off of me!" Kagome yelled, as in their movements she had been moved to be under Sesshomaru. _This guy is definitely not as light as a feather. He must have more muscle than he looks, I refuse to believe he's this fat!_

"Stop shouting in my ear, human. This Sesshomaru is not pleased with this situation either." Sesshomaru said in monotone.

Kagome's eye began to twitch. This guy was seriously insufferable. Suddenly, she was tossed rather rudely on to the ground beside Sesshomaru. "What was that for?" Kagome asked, more to herself than to Sesshomaru; she didn't expect to get a response from him anyway.

She picked herself up and brushed herself off of the dirt and sat as far away from Sesshomaru as possible. She would seriously explode if she had to talk to him again.

"Rin is tired. Rin wants to nap." Rin said, walking over to Kagome and yawning. She sat in Kagome's lap and started to fall asleep. Laughing softly as she glanced down at the adorable sleeping child on her lap, Kagome wondered yet again why Sesshomaru took in this child.

Meanwhile, Sesshomaru was fighting a mental battle with himself. _I refuse to give in to my youkai. I am in no way interested in this…this human wench that Inuyasha keeps around. _Sesshomaru steeled himself against his emotions. Suddenly Sesshomaru felt a weight on his lap and looked up to see Kagome placing Rin in his lap. Instead of saying anything, he merely looked at Kagome to ask what she thought she was doing.

"She's calling for you in her sleep. Don't look at me like that." Kagome huffed. "The least you could do is not glare at me when I'm doing something that your child wants." Kagome suddenly realized that though she thought of Rin as Sesshomaru's child, Sesshomaru probably didn't think of Rin as such. _Oh crap…I'm in for it now._

Surprisingly Sesshomaru didn't say anything; he just sighed and stared ahead. She had found her little way into Sesshomaru's nearly impenetrable heart as his adopted daughter. He was becoming weak. "Come here, human. Sit down." Sesshomaru ordered.

"Excuse me? What makes you think you can order me around like that?" Kagome said, turning around.

"Now she's calling for you." Sesshomaru said, amusement showing in his eyes.

Kagome sighed and went over to sit by Sesshomaru. "Liar." Kagome accused when she saw that Sesshomaru had lied to get her to comply.

"I did not lie; she is calling for you." Sesshomaru said. He just omitted the fact that she had also been saying other things besides Kagome's name.

"Right." There was no winning an argument with Sesshomaru. Sighing, Kagome asked, "Are we going to go in? It's getting dark out here."

Sesshomaru declined to answer. He had no obligation to answer any human's questions. After a while, he felt a head rest on his shoulder; Kagome must have been tired. Again, Sesshomaru felt a sensation run through his body at the first moment of contact with Kagome. And, again, he squashed his feelings quickly and sat still, not wanting to bother either human resting on him. When had he grown so soft?

Meanwhile with Inuyasha and Miroku…

"Inuyasha…can we PLEASE stop for the night?" Miroku begged. "We've been on the move for three days straight!"

"No! We still haven't found Kagome! What if she was killed? Or worse, what if Sesshomaru found her and captured her for Tetsusaiga? We need to go rescue her!" Inuyasha yelled back to the tiring houshi behind him. After a while, Inuyasha heard again,

"PLEASE?"

"NO!"

"Fine, I'll stop by myself. If anything happens to me, Kagome-chan will hold you responsible when she finds out you didn't stop for me." Miroku huffed, his good-nature starting to wear away as he grew inexplicably tired.

"Oh all right, lazy monk!" Inuyasha said exasperatedly, turning around and looking at Miroku, who was setting camp up rather quickly for an exhausted person. "Lazy, good for nothing…" Inuyasha muttered.

"Look, after tonight, we can go again, okay? Maybe we'll go to Sesshomaru's castle instead of just wandering around randomly, okay? At least that way we'll eliminate the possibility of Sesshomaru having captured her." Miroku suggested, rolling over in his sleeping bag.

"Okay, monk." Inuyasha said, sitting by the fire; he was a little too restless to sleep. Inuyasha stifled a large yawn. Okay, maybe not. Opening one eye to peek at the sleeping monk, Inuyasha decided that they had no reason to be attacked and fell asleep.

Back with Sesshomaru and Kagome…

Kagome yawned and turned around in her bed and snuggled up with her cat, Buyo. Buyo moved and she complained,

"Shush, I'm not ready to get up yet." She then made Buyo stop moving by holding on him tighter. Moving up her hand to pet the fluffy cat, she paused, confused. Buyo was fluffy, but not _this_ fluffy. What was this? Suddenly she remembered that she had fallen asleep outside next to Sesshomaru, so where was she now? She opened an eye to peek around her and came face to face with a white fluffy mass. She squeezed it softly and thought, _feels kinda like a tail…_

Then it twitched. Completely freaked out, Kagome then realized why it looked and felt like a tail. It was a tail. More than that, Kagome only knew one being who had a tail: Sesshomaru. _Oh shoot…_Kagome knew she was going to die. She opened the other eye, she figured that if she was going to die she might as well see something before she did, and looked to see the back of Sesshomaru's head, with his hair cascading down his back.

Her hands itched to touch the beautiful mass of silver hair in front of her. It was almost begging to be played with. She clenched her hands into fists to keep herself from touching it. She then saw Sesshomaru's slightly pointed ears and was reminded of Inuyasha's fuzzy ears. Maybe…

Sesshomaru was wakened by a pleasurable feeling and started to unconsciously purr. Still groggy from sleep (he didn't usually indulge in sleeping) he was about to fall asleep again when he heard a sound that sounded suspiciously like a stifled giggle. He then realized that someone was rubbing his ears. He turned around and faced his assailant and glared at her.

Kagome froze when she felt Sesshomaru turn around. She had felt his body rumbling and thought that he was growling. _Perhaps he doesn't like to be touched…eek!_ Kagome flinched under Sesshomaru's demanding gaze. "I didn't do it?" Kagome tried. She looked around for Rin for help, but apparently the girl had woken up before them and went to go play with someone else.

Sesshomaru didn't waiver his gaze and simply raised his eyebrow.

Kagome shrunk under his gaze and curled up into a small ball.

_I'm not letting her know how good that felt._ Sesshomaru decided and simply got up and walked away. After about five feet, however, Sesshomaru was thrown back to Kagome's side. This time Sesshomaru let out an annoyed growl.

Kagome peeked out beneath the safety of her arms and looked out at a too-close-for-comfort Sesshomaru.

"Please don't hurt me." Kagome's voice was muffled from her arms after she ducked her head back under to safety.

"Get up and get dressed. I have matters to attend to." Sesshomaru ordered.

Still scared that Sesshomaru would kill her for touching his ears, wait, no, _rubbing_ his ears, Kagome quickly got up and attempted to comply before turning around and facing Sesshomaru.

"I have to get clothes here. And I'm not changing in front of you." She said plaintively.

Her only reply was a big undershirt, a bigger overshirt, and a pair of too long pants being thrown at her.

Glaring Sesshomaru, Kagome put on the large undershirt, which came down to her knees, and started to change under it. Thankfully, Sesshomaru turned around and waited till she was done.

Sesshomaru felt a tap on his shoulder and he heard a voice.

"I'm done." Kagome said, scowling at how big her clothes were. They obviously belonged to Sesshomaru; everything was white. She had folded her pants up in order to be able to walk and was currently crossing her arms by putting on arm into the other sleeve.

Sesshomaru didn't reply but simply started to walk, making Kagome hurry to catch up to him.

"Do you enjoy making me run to catch up with you to avoid being thrown at you?" Kagome demanded.

Sesshomaru didn't grace her with a reply.

"You are so irritating. If I could sit you, I would." Kagome huffed darkly.

"'Sit' me?" Sesshomaru asked.

However, Kagome was distracted thinking about making another rosary…maybe someone in this castle would know how to make one. She would have to find out later.

"Human, I was talking to you."

"E-eh? Sorry…I was kinda spacing out." Kagome bowed slightly in apology.

"Never mind. You apology is accepted." Sesshomaru said curtly and continued on his path until they reached the painting that Kagome had fallen on top of last time.

_Did Sesshomaru just accept my apology?_ Kagome wondered. Remembering something, she asked,

"Hey, is there a library around here, Sesshomaru-sama?" Kagome was praying there was.

"Yes. It is to the right of the dining room. What do you want?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Er, I was just wondering if there was anything I could, you know, read while you were working. That is, if you wouldn't mind taking me there, as we are still stuck together." Kagome said hopefully.

_At least she's interested in educating herself._ "This Sesshomaru will take you there. What kind of book interests you, human?"

_Would it KILL you to say my name?_ Kagome wondered. "I was looking for a book of spells. Something like one with sutras and stuff. I was hoping that maybe it would have something about this stupid binding on our legs." Kagome lied. She just really wanted to learn about a rosary.

_This human wants something else. However, it is not a bad idea._ Sesshomaru could detect Kagome's lie, but decided to find out what she was up to later. It wasn't as if she was an actual _threat_ to him anyway. When they reached the library, Sesshomaru took Kagome to the section where magical books were located.

"Give me just a minute." Kagome mumbled, while she looked through the contents of books. Finding none that she wanted, she spotted one greenish colored book a few shelves higher than the ones she was putting away. She tried to reach for it but found that she was just a little too short. She then tried jumping to reach the book, but that failed and just made her look stupid.

She looked over at Sesshomaru, who was just standing there, watching her. He had no appearance of wanting to help her, either. She raised and eyebrow at him and asked,

"Can you help me, Sesshomaru-sama?" in her sweetest voice.

"With what do you require assistance, human?" Sesshomaru asked in a bored voice.

"Could you get that book for me?" Kagome asked, pointing to the green book.

Sesshomaru walked up to the shelf and grabbed the book, tossing it carelessly at Kagome, who caught it barely.

"Thanks." Kagome said, following Sesshomaru's retreating figure out into the hallway. She didn't get a chance to look through the book, but she felt that it would have whatever she needed. When the returned to his office/study place, Sesshomaru sat down in his chair and started to work. Left standing in the middle of the room with no other chairs, Kagome decided to sit on the floor, her back resting on one of the legs of the table that Sesshomaru was working on.

After flipping through a few pages, she found what she was looking for, a table of contents. Running her finger down the page she located a section about magical objects, and started to flip to the page. When she reached the chapter, she saw another table of contents, which listed what page to flip to in order to read about different objects. Looking for the R section, she found the section about rosaries and went to that section.

"Got it." Kagome whispered to herself after reading it. So, as it turned out, a rosary did not have to be a necklace, it merely had to be something that would be worn on a person, or, in her case, a demon. However, the necklace was an easy option, as it required the least amount of work.

"What are you mumbling about, human?" Sesshomaru asked, tired of her constant noise.

Kagome squeaked in surprise. "N-nothing!" she managed to say after hyperventilating for a minute. She quickly closed the book, lest he read it and find out.

Sesshomaru simply raised an eyebrow at her antics. Humans were such irritating creatures. "Have you found anything about our situation?" Sesshomaru hated saying the word 'our' as it implied that he had some connection with her.

"Yes, in fact, I have. The book says that we have a curse placed upon us by an immortal being, or, rather, a god of some sorts. The spell caster has a reason for the binding, and it will not be removed until the purpose if fulfilled." Kagome said slowly, making sure that she remembered correctly.

Sesshomaru turned back to his work, as if ignoring her. _So, that woman placed a curse on me and Inuyasha's wench? What does she want?_ "Woman! Reveal yourself!" Sesshomaru stood up as he felt a presence suddenly enter his study. He correctly assumed it was the woman.

"Okay, you caught me." The woman said, disappointed.

"Explain yourself, now." Sesshomaru demanded threateningly. Immortal or not, he could still cause this one pain.

A/N:

Okay, so this wasn't a week since the last one….but I'm really bad. So, what do you guys think? I hope the plot isn't too lame…..I'm just kinda going where the story takes me. Though, sometimes it leaves me out in the middle of the ocean with nothing to help me get to land…pouts….so…..I'll try to start the next chapter….but, no guarantees that it will be updated soon! Please review before you go….you know you want to hit that button…..

-FongSaiYuk319


	4. Stumped You This Time, Sesshomaru

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha….how could I create something so wonderful?

A/N:

I'm SO happy from all the reviews I've gotten….sniff….they make me feel really good. This chapter is dedicated to all who reviewed…thanks so much! And sorry I suck so much for not updating in a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally long time.

Stumped You This Time, Sesshomaru

"Who's that?" Kagome asked, nodding towards the woman.

"_That_ is my patron, or so she claims," Sesshomaru spat out with disgust.

"And my claim is correct, as in my assessment that you are insufferable as well as incorrigible. I am here to inform you of the gods' decision status." The woman said indignantly, eyeing Sesshomaru distastefully.

Sesshomaru didn't grace her with a reply, instead he settled for glaring at her.

"Uh, miss, what's your name?" Kagome asked curiously.

"I am only known as _his_ patron," the woman said, obviously miffed.

"You should be honored to share this Sesshomaru's name," Sesshomaru said.

"Not if you were me," the woman argued.

_No one wins an argument with Sesshomaru. I've got to stop this._ "Ano…what do the gods think?" Kagome asked, trying to stop the argument before it happened.

"Oh, back on track. Anyway, I have come to alert you of the gods' latest decision. They have given you three weeks to discover the meaning of this." The woman tossed a scroll of rice paper at him, smiled at Kagome, and then vanished.

Sesshomaru opened the scroll. After reading it he tossed it at Kagome, who caught it after it knocked her on the head.

"Thanks," Kagome said dryly, rubbing her head. She opened the scroll, frowning as she read it. "What's it supposed to mean?" Kagome demanded.

"If I knew, I would be rid of you already, worthless ningen." Sesshomaru's tone was agitated rather than cold or arrogant.

Kagome ignored the last statement, gathering instead that Sesshomaru didn't know. She smirked; for one the stoic demon lord didn't know something. Well, she didn't know either, but it was still an epic moment.

"What amuses you, human?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Nothing, Sesshomaru-sama," Kagome lied, replacing her smirk with a blank face.

_She lies,_ Sesshomaru thought, irritated. _And, she's bad at it._ He added.

Kagome scowled at Sesshomaru, who was currently looking as if he knew everything about her. _What a priss _she thought bitterly. She decided to read about her rosary project some more, occasionally looking at Sesshomaru to make sure he wasn't looking at her.

"What makes you so paranoid, human?" Sesshomaru asked after Kagome had looked at him five or six times.

"I'm not paranoid!" Kagome argued hotly.

"Hn."

Sesshomaru's dignified, disbelieving snort infuriated Kagome. Who gave him the right to be so stuck up? As far as she knew, the demon lord was in trouble himself, and he was even acting as if it was nothing! Did a visit from the gods not faze him at all?

_Probably not._ Kagome sighed. The only thing greater than Sesshomaru himself was his ego.

Sighing, Sesshomaru put the document he was reading down. He looked down at Kagome and said,

"Human, stop those furtive glances, this Sesshomaru has no desire to impend on your welfare at the moment."

Kagome took a minute to process this, and then realization hit her that Sesshomaru was trying to _comfort_ her. Well, as well as Sesshomaru could comfort someone, but hey, he was making progress. Learning this, she looked at him, her eyes widening.

_She is seriously getting on my nerves._ Sesshomaru thought tiredly. What was her problem? He closed his eyes in frustration…_One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…_when he got to three-hundred and thirty-four, he was calm again. He opened his eyes to see Kagome looking at him even more strangely.

"Are you…okay?" Kagome asked unsurely.

"Yes." Sesshomaru's clipped answer shut Kagome up for a while. "A while" meaning about ten minutes, anyway, at which time she promptly began to squirm uncomfortably.

"What's wrong?" Sesshomaru demanded, not out of concern, however.

Kagome muttered something that even Sesshomaru couldn't discern.

"Repeat it louder. If I can't hear you it gets us nowhere."

"I have to go pee." Kagome blushed a light pink.

At this Sesshomaru was torn whether to sigh irritably, or to laugh. He decided to sigh. Human urges were so _terribly_ inconvenient. (A/N: Do demons ever have to pee?)

"What do you expect this Sesshomaru to do about your problem?" Sesshomaru asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kagome only blushed harder.

"Come, let us go." Sesshomaru got up, not believing that he was actually doing this.

With Inuyasha and Miroku…

"Hurry up, stupid monk! You're so SLOW!" Inuyasha bellowed at the tiring houshi a few steps behind him.

Miroku held himself up by holding on to his staff. His vein began to twitch as he called back, "If humans had the endurance of a half-demon there would be no need for demons, now would there!?"

Inuyasha stopped as he processed Miroku's odd logic. "That doesn't even make sense!" Inuyasha proclaimed.

Miroku caught up to Inuyasha while Inuyasha was confused. "That was the point."

"Huh?" Inuyasha asked. He rubbed his chin, thoroughly confused.

"Never mind, Inuyasha. Come, let's travel a bit slower," Miroku suggested.

"How can you say that? Kagome may be in trouble!" Inuyasha bellowed again at Miroku.

"She's perfectly able to take care of herself, Inuyasha. After all, if she wasn't, she would be dea—" Miroku paused, thinking about Kagome, and then realizing that his words were not exactly true. The clumsy, though kind-hearted, girl could get herself in ridiculous amounts of trouble. "Er, never mind," Miroku muttered.

"That's what I thought. Let's hurry up and LEAVE ALREADY!" Inuyasha yelled.

Miroku winced before he started to follow Inuyasha. How did he get into these situations? Oh, right; he was still trying to get Sango to accept him. Well, that and get rid of the wind tunnel, though he couldn't really figure out which was more important to him, his life or having Sango. He decided to decide later, perhaps when Sango returned with Shippo.

"Let's go, Inuyasha." With that, Miroku set out behind Inuyasha.

Back with Kagome and Sesshomaru….

"Sorry," Kagome squeaked out for the tenth time.

"Stop apologizing and get it right!" Sesshomaru said, holding back his temper and the slowness of a human's mind.

Kagome tried again and failed, falling down. "Sorry!"

Sesshomaru closed his eyes in frustration. "Just get on already, it's late."

"Okay, one more time." Kagome tried again. Just as she was about to slip off, she caught herself and regained her balance.

"Are you quite done?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Yes!" Kagome affirmed happily. Who would have thought that trying to get a piggy back from a demon was so darn difficult? It wouldn't have been that hard had it not been for that darn slippery pelt of his! But, Kagome justified, the pelt was _exquisitely_ soft and furry. She snuggled into it unconsciously.

Sesshomaru sensed every movement of Kagome's with weary disinterest. He needed to patrol his lands, but being stuck to Kagome didn't help, as she tired much faster than he did. Also, his lands were huge, and having a slow human tagging along and impeding his progress didn't appeal to him. Thus, he decided to carry her in the most dignified way, that it, until she squealed and said that she wanted something called a "pig-gee-back ride." Intrigued, Sesshomaru had allowed Kagome to have her "pig-gee-back ride," only to find it a most humiliating way to carry her. He sighed; she would be dropped as soon as possible. And, was she _snuggling_ into his pelt? Counting to three-hundred as he flew up into the air, he squashed the feeling of wanting to squash her.

"Ah!" Kagome yelped as she saw how far up in the air they were. She hid her face in his pelt, not wanting to look down.

"Refrain from exclaiming in this Sesshomaru's ear, human." Sesshomaru's voice was unemotional as ever.

"Sorry," Kagome supplied as a small squeak, her voice muffled from the fur.

The feeling of flying through the air was a strange one indeed, Sesshomaru decided, especially when carrying a human in a "pig-gee-back ride." It made him want to do completely undignifying actions, all of which also included tumbling through the air and laughing hysterically. Squashing down those _horrid_ urges, Sesshomaru continued to make his rounds until they reached the castle again. He was relieved to find that Kagome had fallen asleep half-way through, divesting of him her small annoying gasps of wonderment. Now, he wanted to know how he was going to her off his back. Trying to shake her awake, all he got was,

"Not yet, mom. My pillow is too soft….later……" and more snuggling into his pelt. It was a good thing she didn't reek like other humans tended to, or he would have had to punish her for certain. And frankly, he had too many other punishments to have to add another to his list.

Resigning himself to a sleeping Kagome on his back, he went around his castle, checking up on everything. He tried to retain the most amount of dignity he could, as having a sleeping,_ snuggling_ human on his back tended to take away most of the fearful respect his servants had for him. They seemed to think they made a, Kagome would call it, _adorable_ picture. Wait, why did he know what Kagome would have thought? He shook his head and went to his study. Unrolling the scroll, he spread it out on his table to examine it again.

_Only when you see what cannot be seen,_

_When you hear what cannot be heard,_

_Will you start to understand the inexplicable,_

_And learn the unlearnable._

_To have it, you must give,_

_To keep it, you must trust another,_

_And when you have it,_

_You will understand the inexplicable._

_It heals all wounds,_

_Saves all lives,_

_Being a better cure than gods could contrive._

What did it mean? To him, it was all nonsense. With a dignified snort, he dismissed it. Pacing about because he couldn't sit down with Kagome on his back, he withdrew into himself to think. What else could he do to rid himself of this annoying binding thing he had? Maybe Totosoi would know. He would go see him later tonight, after dinner. He heard a high-pitched giggle and held himself for the eventual indignant shout Jaken had a habit of letting out.

"GET BACK HERE!" a soft scurry of little feet were heard as both ran, Rin for Sesshomaru and Jaken for Rin.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Rin beamed at him and grinned. She cocked her head to the side and asked, a finger in her mouth, "Why is Sesshomaru-sama holding the pretty lady?"

Just then Kagome woke up, stirring a little. Sesshomaru took this as an opportune time to dump her, albeit gently, on the ground.

"Ooph!" The breath whooshed out of a dazed Kagome who was still waking up from a _very_ pleasant nap, thank you very much.

"Pretty lady! Sesshomaru-sama, you shouldn't dump people on the ground like that!" Rin scolded Sesshomaru, who just raised an eyebrow but otherwise dismissed Rin's comment.

"You should really listen to her," Kagome grumbled after she realized what Sesshomaru had done. She got up and brushed herself off, glaring mildly at Sesshomaru.

"This Sesshomaru listens to nobody," Sesshomaru said indifferently.

"Then this Sesshomaru…" the rest of the words were lost as Kagome muttered something so soft that even Sesshomaru's trained ears couldn't catch it.

Kagome then felt something tug on her pants; Rin looked up and smiled adorably. Kagome laughed softly and picked up Rin and put her on her hip, glancing over at Sesshomaru, who seemed to be looking at her funny. What was wrong?

"Ano…what's wrong, Sesshomaru-sama?" Kagome asked, concerned.

Sesshomaru declined to answer, but pondered on why Kagome looked so, well, _right_ carrying his ward, and why he wasn't more disturbed that this human was sneaking into his life in an obnoxiously short amount of time.

Kagome huffed softly, obviously irritated at Sesshomaru's behavior. If he was going to stare at her like she had two heads, he might as well answer her, or at least explain himself. Feeling a body shift on hers, she suddenly remembered that she was carrying Rin. Turning, she smiled; this child was the most adorable human child she had ever met. She would love Shippo.

"Come." Sesshomaru's words were brisk as he snapped himself out of his odd reverie and his footsteps were brisker as he strode quickly down the hall.

"Wait, where are we going?" Kagome asked, not really waiting for an answer as she would have been jerked along with him anyhow.

"We are going to visit an old friend of mine. First, we must put Rin to bed, or with Jaken, whichever she prefers." Sesshomaru turned a corner and faced said toad.

"Jaken-sama!" Rin squealed happily. She squirmed to get out of Kagome's grasp and she ran to chase the suddenly terrified toad.

"Looks like we got our answer," Kagome chuckled.

"Let us leave." Sesshomaru made for the door; his decision to skip dinner and visit Totosoi now would make him sorry later, but he also decided to ignore that until it was facing him.

"How will we get there?" Kagome asked, hurrying up to reach Sesshomaru.

Oh yes, he was regretting the decision already. "We will fly. Come." Sesshomaru reached out his arm and grabbed Kagome tightly and pulled her onto the forming cloud at his feet. He extended his cloud so she could sit, lie down, whatever, but not be attached to him. It wouldn't do to have the whole demon realm see the great Sesshomaru having a human female attached to him.

"Eep!" Kagome squeaked as she was set on a moving, flying, cloud. She poked it; it was squishy. She giggled; who would have though Sesshomaru's cloud was squishy? The word didn't even sound related to anything that had to do with Sesshomaru.

Ignoring the annoying squeaks and sounds, though they weren't really as annoying as he had hoped they would be, coming from Kagome, Sesshomaru set off towards the mountains.

As they weaved their way around the mountains, Kagome ended up lying down on her stomach, peeking down at the world flying by them over the cloud. Every now and then she'd shriek and hide behind the cloud again. Sighing, Sesshomaru finally said,

"Will you stop disturbing this Sesshomaru's ears?"

Kagome froze. "I didn't realize I was disturbing you…"

"Well, either way, stop with the random shrieks." Sesshomaru left the conversation at that, and it was quiet until they reached Totosoi.

"Totosoi! Sesshomaru has arrived!" Sesshomaru announced.

_That was polite,_ Kagome thought.

The old man came tottering out of his cave. "Greetings, lord Sesshomaru." Totosoi bowed.

Kagome snorted. This is why Sesshomaru's head was so big; there were people stupid enough to actually _listen_ to Sesshomaru's threats. As if reading her thoughts, Sesshomaru sent a glare Kagome's way. She simply glared back, because, after all, Sesshomaru _couldn't_ actually read her mind, so she wasn't in trouble.

Bringing his attention back to the matter at hand, Sesshomaru addressed the old man. "This Sesshomaru is in need of your assistance. There is a chain linking me and this ningen together, and this Sesshomaru needs to get it removed."

Totosoi nodded and started asking questions about its nature. This was where Kagome started to space out, thinking about all the odd happenings of late. What did that infernal scroll mean? And where _were_ Inuyasha and Miroku? Was Shippo okay? Did Sango return yet? She smiled as she remembered Miroku and Sango. Sighing happily at the apparent match made in heaven, so to speak, Kagome totally missed when Sesshomaru started to follow Totosoi into his cave.

"Ooph!" Kagome grunted as she was suddenly jerked into Sesshomaru, who was actually prepared for her sudden presence. He caught her enough to prevent any undignified encounter and then promptly dropped her onto the ground. "Hey!" Kagome protested.

"You should have been paying attention, ningen," Sesshomaru said with no sense of regret. After all, if the female wanted to space out, this was her punishment. _You just liked catching her, you pervert,_ something in his mind supplied. It was quickly squashed and never heard from again.

"My name is Kagome! Sheesh, I didn't think it took someone as _perfect_ as yourself so long to get a name right," Kagome bit out, getting up and dusting herself off.

Sesshomaru simply raised his eyebrow, promising himself to dump her on the ground more often.

"Well, then, shall we have a look?" Totosoi asked, acting as if he missed the entire exchange before him. He fussed about, having the two raise their legs up on a rock so he could get a good look at the contraption. While Totosoi tutted about, tapping random implements on the chain cuffs, Sesshomaru didn't fail to notice the indecent amount of skin exposed of Kagome's leg by their position. He'd briefly pondered her indecent and impractical clothing before, but never given it much thought. From all his brief encounters of the girl, she seemed to attract trouble by the cartload, and Sesshomaru then wondered how much of it had to do with her indecent attire.

"What are you looking at?" Kagome demanded, after dealing with Sesshomaru stare at her legs for an entirely inappropriate amount of time.

"Why don't you wear more decent clothing, ningen?" Sesshomaru asked, ignoring Kagome's previous question.

"Excuse me? There's nothing wrong with my uniform! What do you expect me to wear, those stuffy clothes that you do? And why are you looking?" Kagome asked, flustered and frustrated, as Totosoi's efforts were proving to be futile. Her leg was going numb to add to her discomfort.

"Uniform? I do not know what group you are associated with, but I can assure you that no group has such indecent attire. No wonder Inuyasha always calls you helpless; you can't possibly do anything in those clothes. You will change when we return," Sesshomaru said, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. And it was normal; Sesshomaru ordered people around all day.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. What she wouldn't do for a subduing necklace right now. The word _Oswari _(A/N: this is what it is, right? I'm having a brain fart right now…) never seemed so sweet. She had to settle for huffing and crossing her arms. "Are you done yet?" She asked, addressing Totosoi.

"Well," Totosoi sat back on his heels, "it seems as if there is no way to remove this contraption. There is some powerful magic holding it together-"

_What else is new?_ Both Kagome and Sesshomaru thought.

"-and I can't break the chain cuffs. I can, however, try and lengthen the distance between you two," Totosoi offered.

"Do so," Sesshomaru ordered.

And so, Totosoi set about to work again. Kagome started spacing out again, but when Totosoi started dragging her leg over to a raging fire she snapped back into it.

"Excuse me? What are you doing?" Kagome demanded, not wanting to burn her leg off. She respected the old man, but that didn't mean that she trusted him not to barbeque her leg.

"I need to heat the cuff so I can fiddle with it," Totosoi explained. "Don't worry, this fire won't hurt you."

Kagome narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Are you sure? What makes this fire so special?" She eyed the merry flames with distrust.

"The fact that I'm just going to hold you leg above the flames so you won't get singed," Totosoi said, frustrated.

"Oh," Kagome said, dumbly. "Okay."

Sesshomaru wanted to put his face in his hands at how stupid Kagome seemed, but that would look undignified, so he settled for pinching the bridge of his nose. After Kagome had hers done, Sesshomaru lifted his leg up to the flame, letting Totosoi do whatever it was he was doing.

With Miroku and Inuyasha…

"OW, dammit! What the hell was that for, monk?!" Inuyasha demanded as a rock came sailing through the air and hit him in the head.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past half hour," Miroku explained mildly.

"Well?! What do you want?" Inuyasha groused.

"Um, I think we missed a turn back there…"

Inuyasha froze. "Where back there?"

"Um, maybe about half an hour back that way…" Miroku scratched his head.

"WHAT?!" Inuyasha yelled. "Why didn't you tell me?! Worthless monk!" Inuyasha continued on for a moment before suddenly pausing. "We could just turn here, though, and not lose any time."

"That's the best idea I've heard from you all day…" Miroku muttered. If Inuyasha was any louder, Naraku would be able to hear him from hell, or wherever Naraku came from.

They continued walking towards Sesshomaru's castle until sundown, with only a few stunts in between (many of which involved Inuyasha yelling at Miroku to hurry up and Miroku bopping Inuyasha on the head with his staff). They wordlessly agreed to set up camp, only glaring at each other occasionally when Inuyasha would mutter something about worthless slow humans.

"Oi, is there anymore ramen, monk?" Inuyasha asked.

"No," Miroku lied. There was, but he was damned if he was going to let Inuyasha have it after today.

"It's too late to hunt. Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

_Because I want you to starve,_ Miroku thought irritably. "Because I just remembered. I meant to mention it to Kagome-sama but I forgot," Miroku lied again. It was getting easier.

"Oh. I guess we can get something in the morning."

The conversation ended for the day, both setting about to build a fire. When camp was finally all set, they both said their "goodnights" and went to sleep.

Back with Sesshomaru and Kagome…

"Let's see…" Kagome inched away from Sesshomaru slowly, testing out the new boundaries of their chain cuffs. "Eep!" She squeaked when she suddenly found herself stuck to Sesshomaru.

"What did you do, Totosoi? The distance is even shorter now!" Sesshomaru exclaimed his displeasure, longing to tear the blacksmith into little bits. However, his hands were currently full, again, of Kagome.

"Er, maybe it backfired. I'm so sorry, Lord Sesshomaru. I could try again…" Totosoi trailed off, terrified.

Sesshomaru sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose again. "You shall live for now. Be sure you do not offend this Sesshomaru again." With that, Sesshomaru stalked out of the cave, carrying Kagome with him. He tried to pry her off of him, but she was stuck.

_He smells like soap,_ Kagome realized, inhaling deeply. She liked the smell of a clean person, male or female. It was bonus points if it was a male, though. She smiled dreamily, suddenly feeling a need to nap. So nap she did, stuck to Sesshomaru.

Suddenly, Sesshomaru heard Kagome say "He smells like soap." What on earth was she talking about? Just as he was about to demand an explanation, he felt a presence again.

"I told you those wouldn't come off. Why did you tamper with them?"

"You," Sesshomaru stated, filling that word with an extraordinary amount of hatred. "Fix this."

The lady sniffed. "I already told you how to fix it. By tampering with the link, you have made your separation less, in more ways than just the physical distance." With that, the lady disappeared.

Snarling at her disappearing form, he flicked his poison whip, snapping it where his "patron" should have been. He took a small amount of satisfaction seeing the poison destroy the plants and ground where it hit. He then took off on his cloud, leaving the mountain still clutching Kagome, even though he knew somewhere in the back of his mind that she was still stuck on him and couldn't fall even if he let go. He declined the situation the right to be thought about.

It took him a while to calm down enough to focus on where exactly he was going (at least on the inside—his facial expression never really changed), and so it took him a little longer to get home. When he landed on the ground, he tried plying Kagome off of him, hearing Rin's voice echo through the castle hallways. A smile tugged on his lips but he squashed the _horrid_ urge, instead trying to discover what exactly the new ramifications on the cuffs were. He discovered, unfortunately, that they now had to be touching at all times.

Inconvenient didn't even begin to describe their situation, Sesshomaru discovered. The words he'd use to describe the situation would probably even shock Inuyasha's ears. Damn that Totosoi. And why wasn't Kagome awaking? He shook her roughly.

No response. Sesshomaru growled. "Wake up, worthless ningen!"

Kagome remained comatose.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Sesshomaru glanced around quickly, almost furtively (but it's known that Sesshomaru doesn't _do_ furtive, so it had to be _almost_ furtive), before he kissed Kagome's cheek, cursing the damn woman that started this who was probably laughing her head off right now.

Kagome yawned, stretching and rubbing her eyes. She opened her eyes and saw Sesshomaru. Smiling, she greeted him. "Hello, Sesshomaru-sama."

Ignoring the strange feelings Kagome's smile invoked in him, Sesshomaru merely said in return, "It's about time you woke up. We must now be in contact at all times."

At first, Kagome was offended at Sesshomaru's brusque reply, but then she took in what he said. Her eyes widened. "How am I gonna bathe?"

That was a good point, Sesshomaru realized. Because, in all reality, she would _have_ to bathe. The only thing worse than being tethered to a human female was being tethered to a smelly human female. "We will bathe together," Sesshomaru said, seemingly entirely nonplussed.

"Um…" Kagome wanted to protest violently, but then there was nothing she could really say. It wasn't like Sesshomaru wanted to be tethered to her either. Unless he was a closet pervert and set this whole thing up, which she highly doubted. Sesshomaru had the sort of looks and persona that could attract any female demon, who tended to be much prettier, he wanted, why would he go to all this trouble for a human female?

"Do you have something you wanted to say?" Sesshomaru asked dangerously.

"Um….no?" Kagome said, feeling small. She could tell Sesshomaru had a headache and so tried not to incite his ire.

"Then, we will go to my study. I have matters to attend to." Sesshomaru started striding down the hall but only progressed about two steps. Closing his eyes and waiting for the eventual impact and squeal, Sesshomaru opened his eyes when it never came. However, it was when he opened his eyes that Kagome came crashing into him.

"Sumimasen!" Kagome squeaked, her voice muffled because her face was pressed into Sesshomaru's back.

Sesshomaru sighed; it had been a _very_ long day already, and all he wanted to do was to finish his letter to the Lord of the South and then sleep. He thought bitterly that he'd had the urge to sleep much too often lately. Resigned to his destiny, he grabbed Kagome's arm and started down the hall again, basically dragging the protesting female.

"Hey!" Kagome protested, but to no avail. She scowled and huffed when she was ignored. If he was going to drag her around like a human teddy bear, the least he could do would be to respond to her.

They entered Sesshomaru's study, at which point Kagome was promptly dropped on the floor.

"Ooph!" Kagome's breath came out in a whoosh.

Sesshomaru ignored her glares and just watched, blank faced, as she gathered herself up from off the floor. He especially ignored the part where she muttered "I hate you and all canines. This is why I have a cat!" He also ignored the urge to dismember her slowly, piece by screaming piece.

Perhaps his headache was really getting to him. Sighing, he sat down to look at his letter, still left unfinished. He looked up to see Kagome standing awkwardly, trying to get as much distance from him without actually getting out of contact. He raised his eyebrow. "Sit."

"Eh?!" Kagome said. She wasn't a dog. She had no necklace. How dare he just tell her to _sit_?!

"Sit," he repeated. Seeing as she was still in a rage-induced shock, he closed his eyes and explained himself. "Sit on the floor, miko, and put your head against my leg. This Sesshomaru will be in contact with you without you distracting him from his work by your incessant fidgeting."

Did Sesshomaru just tell Kagome to use his leg as a pillow? She blinked a couple times, trying to make sense of everything, when she was grabbed by the shoulder and roughly shoved down to the floor. "Hey!" Kagome said as her butt was forcefully connected with the ground.

"This Sesshomaru already told you three times," was the cold reply. "Shut up and let me finish this letter."

Kagome scowled but stayed silent. It was a little disturbing how comfortable the Western Lord's thigh was as a pillow, but she didn't think mentioning her thoughts would make anything better. After spacing out for a bit, Kagome started to doze off. Just as sleep was about to claim her, she suddenly fell backwards and landed on something hard. Opening her eyes, she looked up to see Sesshomaru looking down at her, a smirk gracing his lips.

Her eyes widening at the show of emotion, Kagome forgot momentarily to be upset that Sesshomaru had so abruptly stood up and disturbed her. It came to her soon enough and she said, "What's the big idea?!"

"I am finished," was all Sesshomaru responded. He bent down and grabbed her arm, dragging her again out the study and down the hall. This time she dug her feet in and refused to budge. When Sesshomaru turned around to see why there was resistance, he saw Kagome crossing her arms and giving him the evil eye. He raised an eyebrow in question.

"I'm not going to be dragged behind you like some teddy bear everywhere! I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own!" Kagome yelled.

Sesshomaru stood there and seemed to go through what Kagome had just said, and Kagome smiled in satisfaction. She was then promptly tugged harder and then Sesshomaru again proceeded to drag her down the hall. She gave up. If she could have seen his face, she would have seen that Sesshomaru was smirking. Truth be told, Sesshomaru quite enjoyed flustering this human. He would have to see what else he could do to set her off.

They entered the tai-youkai's private quarters and Sesshomaru let Kagome go. She was still scowling at him, to which he only looked back blankly at her. "This Sesshomaru is tired. We will take a short slumber before dinner."

Kagome stared at him, her eyes wide, before hiding a giggle behind her hand.

"What do you find so humorous, human? Speak before I pull out your tongue," Sesshomaru demanded, his eyes narrowing.

"I-I-I never th-thought that the g-g-great Sesshomaru w-would h-h-have to sleep!" she managed to say between giggles.

He really hated humans. Sesshomaru would have liked nothing more than to rip her head off and see the blood flowing down and spattering on the wall. Well, perhaps not in his room, but the hallway would do nicely. Remembering, though, that if Kagome were to become a corpse, he would still have to drag it around with him, Sesshomaru decided simply to bonk her on the head, knocking her out. He then picked up her unresisting form and placed her in the bed, climbing in himself after.

_Ah, glorious silence,_ Sesshomaru thought, before drifting off to sleep.

With Inuyasha and Miroku…

"It's a nice day," Miroku commented.

He was lying, of course. It was a hot, muggy day, and everything seemed to stick to their bodies. Even the trees seemed to be groaning with the oppressive heat.

"Inuyasha."

There was no response from the silver-haired inu-hanyou.

"Inuyasha…"

Silence greeted Miroku again.

"INUYASHA!" Miroku called again, this time bonking Inuyasha on the head with Miroku's staff.

"OI! What the hell, monk?" Inuyasha cried out, holding his head and turning around.

"Will you stop ignoring me?" Miroku said, leaning on his staff with a vein pulsing in his forehead.

"I wasn't ignoring you!" Inuyasha protested.

"Right. Anyway, can we please find somewhere to set camp? This heat is debilitating. And it's almost night anyway," Miroku said wearily.

"I guess so…but no more bonking me with that stick, you hear me?" Inuyasha warned. "Weak humans….only a couple hours away and he wants to rest…" Inuyasha muttered.

"No more bonking," Miroku agreed, ignoring that last comment.

Back with Sesshomaru and Kagome…

"Mmmm…" Kagome turned over and snuggled into her pillow. Even though the heat outside was oppressive, the castle seemed to have its own temperature, and right now, the heat was delicious. Of course, Kagome didn't realize she was in bed with Sesshomaru, but that was beside the point.

Her sleeping-mate, however, didn't seem to find everything as perfect as Kagome did. His golden-eyes were open and staring at the ceiling, while his brain worked on whatever the scroll meant. What seemed to bother him most was that he had woken up briefly, and the one thought that was on his sleep-fuzzied mind was "where's Kagome?" What was even more disturbing was how much relief he felt when she turned and snuggled into him, much as she was doing now. Something was tugging at his mostly dormant/frozen heart, and he disliked it immensely.

As if feeling the inner turmoil radiating off the taiyoukai, Kagome woke up, blinking blearily. She saw something white and silky lying right in front of her, and she couldn't resist reaching out to touch it. _Mmmm…Sesshomaru's hair is really nice…wait. Sesshomaru?_ Suddenly she froze, realizing that she was touching Sesshomaru's hair.

Truth be told, Sesshomaru didn't even really feel Kagome molesting his hair, but more noticed the fact that she had stiffened. He then looked down and saw that Kagome had a handful of hair in her hand and almost had to stifle a laugh at the expression on her face. Almost. Because, really, Sesshomaru didn't find anything other than frustrating the human to be amusing. Really.

"Are you quite done?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ano…your hair is really soft…?" Kagome offered as an explanation.

"Hn," Sesshomaru responded, giving Kagome a chastising look, which she visibly cringed under. She let go of his hair and burrowed into the closest thing to get away from his glare, which, unfortunately enough, turned out to be Sesshomaru's chest. She obviously wasn't thinking all that well.

Sesshomaru wanted to laugh at the futility of humanity, but laughing in front of said humanity would only increase his own, so he refrained. "You do realize that you are clutching onto that from which you try to escape?" He asked; his voice rumbling through his body into Kagome's.

"Er….what?" Kagome asked, still muffled from Sesshomaru's shirt.

Strangely, even though he should have been frustrated with the lack of intelligence this ningen female possessed, Sesshomaru was just content to lay where he was, arms around the burrowed female. Kagome, on the other hand, was freaking out.

_I'm in bed with Sesshomaru. And I'm still alive. BUT FOR HOW LONG?! Do I stink? I hope I don't smell………I don't think we took a bath before we slept……OMG! A BATH! How am I gonna BATHE with him in the general vicinity? AHHHHHHHH!_

"You're heart is beating so loud that I do believe the half-breed, and the monk he travels with, can hear it from thirty miles outside the castle," Sesshomaru commented. In truth, her anxiety was far from soothing to Sesshomaru's nose and nerves, but he would never tell anyone that. "Shush, miko." Sesshomaru made a low, soothing, growling sound through his chest and Kagome relaxed a bit, though still clueless as to why.

Truth be told, Sesshomaru wouldn't have moved in the near future had not the little imp burst into his rooms, yelling, "Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken then froze when he saw Sesshomaru and Kagome. "What are you doing, lord Sesshomaru?! She-she-she-…Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken was whining now. He continued, "She is a ningen, a weak one at that, and completely unworthy of—" Jaken was interrupted mid-sentence by a small (and relatively harmless) ball of pink energy smashing into his head. It sent him flying through the open window and out into the courtyard.

"Does he _ever_ shut up?" Kagome muttered, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "I was sleeping."

Sesshomaru just smirked. He turned onto his back and stretched his arms out above his head, still having no real intention to move. He really ought to sleep more—if he had known it made one feel so relaxed, he would have started centuries ago. Although, perhaps it was the feeling of complete satisfaction that Kagome, or anyone, really, had blasted the kappa into kami-knows-where.

Kagome turned and looked around at Sesshomaru, raising her eyebrow. "Are we feeling much better, mr. cranky-pants?"

He glared at her. "It seems you slept well, even though you were sleeping the entire day."

Kagome just glared back momentarily before turning away, muttering something about arrogant demon-lords who thought they were just _all-that_.

"It is time for dinner," Sesshomaru announced, standing up.

"I didn't realize that beings as perfect as you ate," Kagome muttered again, apparently still feeling bitter. Sesshomaru decided to ignore her from now on. He could always decapitate her later.

They made their way to the dining room with relatively few hiccups, one of which included Kagome once again being dragged. Once Sesshomaru opened the great double doors which led to a great dining hall, Kagome's eyes got big. That was, until she saw the teeny tiny little table plopped right in the center of it.

Then she had a fit of hysterical laughter.

Sesshomaru closed his eyes, wondering how on earth he had ever felt anxiety over her absence.

A/N:

So I suck. Sorry. I really don't mean to suck as much as I do……but it just happens. I doubt anyone is still following this story, but to anyone who is, thanks very much! It means a lot of me that anyone is willing to put up with my drivel. Of course, knowing my, er, updating habits, it may be a while until the next chapter comes out…….sorry!

-FongSaiYuk319


	5. This is for This Sesshomaru to Decide

Disclaimer: Look, if I own Inuyasha, I'd be a few things which I'm not……I'd be Japanese (not that people haven't thought I wa

Disclaimer: Look, if I own Inuyasha, I'd be a few things which I'm not……I'd be Japanese (not that people haven't thought I was before…), I'd be rich (isn't that everyone's dream?), I'd be a good artist (which I'm really not. My stick men are disproportionate), and my name would be Rumiko Takahashi (which it obviously isn't). So……if you wanted to skip all that……I basically don't own anything, except for my teddy bear.

A/N: I've just discovered two hairs in my morning cereal. Oddly enough, I'm not all that perturbed……is there something wrong with me? Well, besides the fact that I don't update enough. Er, sorry about that. This might be a LONG time after it's done. Thank you to all who reviewed, yes, even you who said I was a bitter and ire…ful person (is ireful a word?). Every review you gives helps me (though if you really don't want to, I don't mind…..I personally am a bit shy when it comes to reviewing), either through my writing, or my character! I must learn to be more sensitive! tears stream down upturned face as hand pumps up in the air Now on to the story, and enough of me babbling.

This is for This Sesshomaru to Decide, Not You, Wench

Kagome, for some odd reason, found the juxtaposition of the large and finely decorated room to the small, dinky table ridiculously hilarious. She was very aware that Sesshomaru was probably about to decapitate her and defenestrate her head if she didn't stop soon, but she couldn't help it. Come on, it was funny! She sucked in another breath and tried to calm her self down, bending over and putting her hands on her thighs to support herself. Unfortunately, she started to laugh again, but this time a hand suddenly appeared out of nowhere and clamped itself over her mouth, effectively shutting her up.

"Mmph!" Kagome protested.

Sesshomaru ignored her and dragged her over to the table, sitting down himself gracefully while letting Kagome fall. She once again landed on her butt.

"Hey!" She yelped. She rubbed her butt; that stone was hard! "Stupid, overbearing, snotty tai-youkai," She muttered.

Sesshomaru picked up his chopsticks and started to eat the food that was set before them, once again ignoring his human companion. Kagome's stomach rumbled as she smelled food, seeming to remind her that she was indeed hungry. She scrambled into a kneeling position and looked for her own settings. When she saw them, her eye twitched.

Sesshomaru knew exactly what he was doing, and he really couldn't care less. Yes, he had managed to sit at one place setting while somehow occupying another place setting, making it extremely awkward for Kagome to reach it. This is what she got for laughing at his décor. He continued to eat, unperturbed.

After a while of just sitting there, watching Sesshomaru's perfect manners and following his perfect movements as he chewed and swallowed, Kagome started to unconsciously whine. She was so hungry, and he was just _sitting_ there, taking up two spaces! It was as bad as those idiots who didn't know how to park! And she just _knew_ he was doing it on purpose.

Sesshomaru, needless to say, was pleased, if not surprised, when Kagome started to whine. It appealed far too much to his Inu-nature, and it seemed to scream to him "Please? Onegai?" When it reached to that point, Sesshomaru subtly moved over, opening up the place setting he wasn't using. Kagome visually perked up and scooched over, her side touching Sesshomaru. Picking up her chopsticks and bowl, she started to eat as well, savoring all the delicious dishes.

She really shouldn't like takoyaki (basically fried octopus balls) as much as she did, but it had always been her favorite. She noticed one more lone takoyaki sitting in its dish, untouched. Her fingers itched to grab it and shove it in her mouth, like she used to do when she was six. But would it be disrespectful to Sesshomaru? Should she even try and offer it to him first? She sneaked a peek at him, and he seemed to be content to just chew his rice. Well, granted, he had been eating for a good ten minutes before she had. Git.

"Ano…Sesshomaru-sama?" Kagome asked uncertainly.

"Hm?" Sesshomaru asked, in an unusually good mood.

"Well…"

Just as Kagome was about to ask if it was okay if she took the last takoyaki, Sesshomaru gracefully reached over and grabbed it. Kagome's eyes went wide as she watched the ball being held by his chopsticks approach his bowl. Then she pouted; he had known the entire time and was just teasing her! Sensing Kagome's indignant posture and vibe, Sesshomaru decided to tease her just a bit more. He hovered the food in the air, seemingly trying to decide if he really wanted it or not. Kagome's eyes followed every movement of the takoyaki.

"Miko."

"H-hai, Sesshomaru-sama?" Kagome answered, a bit dazed from following the takoyaki.

"Open up."

Kagome did so without thinking, and Sesshomaru put the takoyaki in her mouth, smirking when she finally registered what he did. Unfortunately, she discovered she couldn't protest with her mouth full, so she settled for glaring. Sesshomaru just went back to finishing his rice.

Stupid prig. Stupid, annoying, frustrating, stuck-up, and yet strangely considerate, demon lord. The octopus was really cooked perfectly, and Kagome couldn't help but close her eyes in pleasure. She was still annoyed, of course, but at the moment, Sesshomaru could have done anything he wanted and she'd still be in takoyaki bliss. She suddenly had a thought and shivered: takoyaki _and_ udon. She would have to find the cook and ask them to make it at some point. Not that the two necessarily went together……but she could just imagine the utter _yumminess_ that it would provide.

When Kagome was done eating, she put her bowl and chopsticks down, waiting patiently for Sesshomaru, who, had she been observant, was already done and waiting for her. He seemed perfectly content to just sit there, though. However, he was wondering on the merits of teasing Kagome some more, just to get that gratifying whine out of her again. If he had to be stuck to this human, he could at least manipulate her into turning more Inu than his half-breed of a brother, which would, no doubt, irritate Inuyasha to no end. Of course, Sesshomaru need not actually teach her inuyoukai tradition and culture, but little things like whining and growling would be most gratifying. He could imagine the look of utter confusion on Inuyasha's face, and he decided that he would just have to make the ningen want to stay with him and not go with Inuyasha. Ah….causing lower beings discomfort was such a pleasant pastime.

He decided to communicate in Inu to Kagome from now on. If she didn't understand, he could just drag her along anyway. He stood up, and, surprisingly, Kagome stood up too. He made a yipping sound (which he would have found, normally, incredibly below him, but no one was around anyway) that signified that she was supposed to follow him, but Kagome just tilted her head in confusion. He repeated himself.

_Did…did…did Sesshomaru just __yip__ at me?_ Kagome blinked in confusion. The next moment she was tugged across the room and into the hallway. _Guess he's not much for conversation, or manners, not that it's news to me._

The rest of the night Kagome had to put up with yips, barks, growls, and a couple of strangely placed whines. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, but kind figured out that when he either growled or snarled at her, she was doing something to irritate him. She also found out as they went to sleep for the night, after taking a bath (where Sesshomaru had promptly pushed her in, following in after), that Sesshomaru _purred_. Just like Buyo. She also remembered Inuyasha doing the same thing when she rubbed his ears, but, barring the strange time when she had rubbed Sesshomaru's ears, she would have never thought Sesshomaru capable of purring. She also learned that Sesshomaru apparently would only listen to her if she whined, which she only did when she was absolutely desperate.

Kagome discovered that night, as well, that mocking Sesshomaru by copying his speech was a bad idea. She grumbled about cranky, weird-ass demon lords who thought they could take over the world by barking.

With Miroku and Inuyasha…

"Are we almost there?" Miroku asked, panting. Inuyasha had been particularly impatient today and Miroku had been forced to run after him for about an hour and a half.

Inuyasha paused, sniffed the air, and grinned, baring his fangs. "Yeah, only about another half-mile or so."

"Good." Miroku promptly sat down, nursing his aching feet. Sure, he was tired after running after a slightly deranged hanyou, but he had been running in sandals, and he had blisters.

"Oi! Up, monk! We can't afford to stop now!" Inuyasha's voice had a tinge of whininess.

"Watch me, Inuyasha," Miroku retorted, looking through one of the medical bags Kagome had left with them. When he found the stuff that the futuristic miko had said helped blisters, he started applying it.

Inuyasha's nose twitched. "That smells horrible!" He complained.

"Then you shouldn't have made me apply it," Miroku responded. "I got blisters because you made me run for 8 miles."

"Oh."

_Oh, indeed_, Miroku thought, shaking his head. He really hoped that Kagome was at the Western palace, although, that meant other problems would occur. He shrugged. As long as Kagome was okay, everything would be all right. He put the stuff away and stood up, gathering his stuff.

"We can go, Inuyasha," Miroku announced.

"Okay!" Inuyasha was still way too enthusiastic, but Miroku figured it was because he longed for a fight, especially since he hadn't been able to properly attack Naraku's latest nasty spawn.

Monk and hanyou set off.

With Sesshomaru and Kagome…

Before she had gone to sleep, Kagome realized that she _had_ been basically sleeping the entire day, and so why was she still sleepy now? And, come to think of it, she'd always managed to fall asleep on Sesshomaru. Oh, now that was embarrassing; now she must look not only weak, but inattentive as well. This was thought moments before she dozed off, once again snuggled up to the impressive tai-youkai. Hey, the castle was _cold_ at night, okay?

Morning came all too soon for both Sesshomaru and Kagome, but mostly for Kagome. Yawning, she rolled over and stretched her arms above her head, working out the kinks in her back. Unfortunately, her right arm came into contact with something that felt suspiciously like a nose.

"Er…" Kagome suddenly became aware of her bedmate and blushed. She _really_ hoped she hadn't done any sort of damage to Sesshomaru's nose!

Sesshomaru just opened one eye, grabbed the offended arm, and used it to twist Kagome back onto her side. He growled slightly, causing Kagome to sigh.

"Are you _still_ going to just talk to me like a dog?" she said, exasperated.

Just as Sesshomaru was going to snort and turn away from her, the door opened and a scurry of feet was heard.

"Sesshomaru-sama! Pretty lady! Wake up! Wake up! Jaken-sama is getting beat over the head by Inuyasha-baka!" Rin announced, giggling.

This caused both Sesshomaru and Kagome to sit straight up. And indeed, they could hear a commotion in Sesshomaru's courtyard.

"Sesshomaru, you bastard! Come down here and talk to me!" Inuyasha bellowed.

"Sesshomaru-sama will never give you the time of day! BEGONE!" Jaken could be heard squawking.

Kagome and Sesshomaru looked at each other, each knowing that there were two people downstairs who were infringing upon their sleep, and both agreeing that this action deserved punishment. Rin, having seen that look on Sesshomaru's face before, giggled and clung on to his leg as both Kagome and Sesshomaru strode out of the room and down to the courtyard. Rin was excited to see what would happen to Jaken-sama and Inuyasha-baka.

When all three of them had reached the doors that led to the courtyard, Rin let go of Sesshomaru's leg and pulled on Kagome's pants. She knew that whenever Sesshomaru and Inuyasha-baka met, that Sesshomaru always had to beat Inuyasha-baka up, and so she couldn't hang on to him. Kagome bent down to pick Rin up.

"Now we get to see Sesshomaru beat Inuyasha-baka up!" Rin whispered conspiratorially in Kagome's ear. Kagome laughed. She couldn't get over the fact that Rin called him Inuyasha-baka. She turned to Sesshomaru.

"So, how do we want to do this?"

Sesshomaru didn't respond, but simply grabbed her hand, knowing that it would be enough to set the half-breed off. Kagome raised an eyebrow, but as she opened her mouth to speak, she got the growl that told her to "shut up and do what I say" from Sesshomaru. She quickly closed her mouth. Sesshomaru then kicked the door open.

"Half-breed, why do you invade my territory? Leave with your sullying presence," Sesshomaru said, almost indifferently.

"Hey! Wha…What the hell, Sesshomaru? Let Kagome GO!" Inuyasha turned his attention to the girl who was holding Rin in one hand and Sesshomaru's hand in the other. "What the hell, Kagome? Why are you holding his hand?" Inuyasha was about to charge at them.

"Sit."

Inuyasha went flying to the ground. "Damn wench…" he muttered.

Jaken ran over to Sesshomaru. "Sesshomaru-sama!" was all he could get in, though, before a boot to the head sent him flying.

Sesshomaru and Kagome looked at each other again. Two for two.

"Inuyasha! Why on earth would you come so early in the morning?!" Kagome asked, as Inuyasha got up, still muttering obscenities.

"What?! I came to save you, and you ask why I'm here SO EARLY?" Inuyasha roared, infuriated.

"I was sleeping!" Kagome whined.

This stopped both Miroku and Inuyasha in their tracks. The look they had on their faces clearly said "did she just say what I thought she said?"

"Ano, Kagome-sama, Inuyasha has been very worried about you…" Miroku trailed off.

"Well, I know….but…..well, thank you, Inuyasha," Kagome said.

Inuyasha turned red. "Um……well, you should come home now," He said, covering his embarrassment with bossiness.

"Um….the thing is…I can't…" Kagome said, turning and glaring at Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru had stayed quiet during the entire time, and was looking impassively at the mountains.

"Why the hell not?" Inuyasha asked, incredulous.

"Well, er, I'm kind of stuck…" Kagome trailed of, still looking at Sesshomaru for not explaining the situation at all.

"Eh?" Inuyasha asked, still completely confused.

"Um…" Kagome looked again, this time squeezing Sesshomaru's hand. "Will you talk?" she hissed.

Sesshomaru ignored her.

Inuyasha was starting to bristle.

"Sesshomaru!" Kagome hissed again. When she got no response, she started whining again.

"The damned gods have taken an interest in me, and so your miko is stuck to me," Sesshomaru responded.

Inuyasha blinked for a second, torn between whether to laugh at Sesshomaru or be outraged that Kagome was treating Sesshomaru like her alpha male. In the end, he just stared at them.

Satisfied that he had managed to dumbfound the half-breed, Sesshomaru turned and glided into his castle, dragging Kagome behind him.

"Sesshomaru! I've _told_ you I'm not to just be dragged along like a teddy bear!" Kagome shouted. "Inuyasha, come here and help me," she called out.

"Come here you bastard!" Inuyasha charged forward, taken out of his momentary incapacitation by Kagome's yell. "Monk! Follow!"

Miroku didn't need to be told twice; the demon guards were looking kind of like they wanted to eat him for supper.

They found Sesshomaru and Kagome in the middle of the large entrance room. Kagome was berating an indifferent Sesshomaru while Rin was dancing around and giggling.

"Listen here, you pompous fluffy bum, I will _not_ stand to be dragged around like that! I CAN WALK! W-A-L-K. Understand?!" Kagome was fuming.

"Hush, ningen. You tire my ears," Sesshomaru commanded. He was started to get a headache.

"I WILL NOT HUSH!" Kagome shouted, getting right into his face.

Sesshomaru leaned closer, whispering silkily, "If you do not hush, I will not hesitate to remove the head of the hanyou from his undeserving body and let my guards play catch with it."

Kagome promptly shut up. She then glared at him. "I will not be treated like a bag of sand," she hissed, turning away.

"A bag of sand would be more tolerable," Sesshomaru commented.

Kagome whirled around, infuriated. "Say that to my face!" She challenged, grabbing his shirt and yanking him down.

"This Sesshomaru does not waste words on a mentally incapable ningen," Sesshomaru said, before deciding to give the bristling hanyou and the concerned monk a show. He grabbed Kagome, just as her mouth was about to open and probably yell at him some more, and kissed her.

Kagome was surprised, to say the least. What on earth was Sesshomaru doing kissing her? And how in Kami's name did he _get_ to be such a good kisser? Her last coherent thought was about how Hojo really sucked at kissing, compared to Sesshomaru, at least. She thought she could dimly hear Inuyasha blustering in the background, but she was too engrossed in how soft Sesshomaru's lips were. Kagome sighed into the kiss and buried her hands into Sesshomaru's hair.

Honestly, Sesshomaru had never meant to let the kiss go as far as it had, but the miko was simply intoxicating, and he couldn't really seem to get enough. He was more aware than she, and knew that Inuyasha was approaching rapidly, while the monk just stood there with a lecherous grin on his face. Just as Inuyasha was about to reach them, Sesshomaru erected a barrier, sending Inuyasha flying backwards and landing on his butt.

"OI! Let go of her, or I'll kill you!" Inuyasha threatened, getting back up for a second try.

Sesshomaru simply ignored him and concentrated on kissing Kagome. When Sesshomaru sensed that Kagome was going to pass out if she didn't breathe, he pulled away, satisfied that he had, at least momentarily, shut her up. She had a dazed look in her face, and, eyes still glazed over, she leaned into his chest, snuggling up to him. Sesshomaru then looked up, and smirked evilly at Inuyasha, who had finally stopped trying to break in and was simply standing there, looking shocked.

"KAGOME! Don't let that bastard brainwash you!" Inuyasha yelled.

And, indeed, Inuyasha's yelling seemed to reach Kagome, who started to come out of her Sesshomaru-just-snogged-me-within-an-inch-of-my-life daze. She blinked a couple times, and suddenly realized what had just happened. She blushed and removed herself from Sesshomaru as much as she could, looking at the ground.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled again, furious with Sesshomaru. He could just tell that Sesshomaru had put some sort of curse over Kagome. He turned towards Miroku.

"OI! Monk! Don't just stand there and drool! Come and purify this barrier!" Inuyasha yelled.

Miroku pulled himself out of his stupor and fished in his sleeve and pulled out a sutra. He ran over to Inuyasha and slapped the sutra on the barrier, watching it melt before his eyes. He suspected it was only melting because Sesshomaru was letting it melt, which really meant bad business for him and Inuyasha. He wasn't really concerned for Kagome, because, for some reason, he had a feeling that Sesshomaru was connected to Kagome in more than just a physical way. Ah….what he wouldn't do to be connected to Kagome physically…….

"MONK! You're driving me nuts here! Help get Kagome free from this bastard!" Inuyasha said, bonking Miroku over the head. Inuyasha rushed at Sesshomaru, only to be stopped by Kagome.

"Sit," she squeaked out, as she saw that Inuyasha was about to pound into Sesshomaru, which would also affect her. Not that she didn't think Sesshomaru couldn't handle Inuyasha, but she wasn't really thinking.

"Dammit, Kagome!" Inuyasha muttered, realizing why she had said the damn word in the first place. Of course if he attacked Sesshomaru, Kagome would get hurt, too. And that was completely counter-productive.

"Half-breed, monk, follow us into the dining chamber. We will discuss this matter further over breakfast." Sesshomaru made and impressive twirl and stalked off, causing Kagome to stumble after him.

Kagome gave up on bothering Sesshomaru and just caught up, attempting to match his stride, but only half-succeeding. She managed to make it to the tiny table without any major klutz-like occurrences and sighed with relief when they sat down. She stiffened again, however, when Sesshomaru's arm snaked around her waist and tugged her closer into his side. The arm stayed, confusing her completely.

Sesshomaru's beast would just not SHUT UP. It kept whining and complaining and wanting to kiss Kagome again. If he had known that this would happen, he would have never kissed her in the first place, no matter how much he wanted to infuriate the half-breed. Having her close managed to hush up his beast a little bit. Damn youkai.

Inuyasha burst through the doors with Miroku in tow behind him. Miroku had an irritated look on his face, and he was glaring at Inuyasha. Sesshomaru knew that they had been arguing before they had come in, and Sesshomaru assumed that was what caused the palpable tension between hanyou and monk.

"Sit," Sesshomaru commanded. Servants brought out food and place settings, and as they set them down in front of Inuyasha, Miroku, and Kagome, they glared. Miroku simply ignored them in favor of trying to tame his itching hand—if he groped one of these many beautiful demonesses, he would surely be killed in a matter of seconds. Inuyasha didn't notice it, as he was too busy growling at Sesshomaru, who was still tugging Kagome closer. Sesshomaru saw, but he didn't care. Kagome was a different story, however.

"What's your problem?" she challenged, as she got another dirty look from a particularly pretty demonness.

Most of the servants just looked at each other, knowing that they couldn't say anything, for fear of retribution from the western lord. However, the one Kagome had affronted was a bit more outspoken than the others and spat back a response.

"You, filthy ningen whore, and your constant need to cling on to our lord like a lifeline, not that you could survive on your own."

The words were spoken with such disdain and malice that Kagome was shocked momentarily. She quickly regained hold of the situation, however, and was about to send a purifying blast of energy (not that it would kill the demonness, just show her that Kagome was not weak indeed) when Sesshomaru placed his hand on her upper thigh. Surprised and distracted, the energy simply crackled on her fingertips.

"You will be punished for speaking without permission," Sesshomaru said casually.

The demonness froze, her momentary smugness wiped away. Suddenly she was pressed up against the wall, a pair of claws at her throat. Inuyasha didn't have as much control as Sesshomaru did, for, truly, Sesshomaru had wanted to do the exact same thing. Well, not Sesshomaru himself, but his beast did, and Sesshomaru was learning slowly that his beast wasn't always wrong. And that it was damn annoying when it got to speaking. Thus, he didn't stop Inuyasha from hurting the impertinent servant.

"Look here, you stuck up bottom feeder, don't you _ever_ insult Kagome like that, you hear? You're lucky I didn't let her purify your ass. She's worth about 10,000 times more than you, in so many many ways," Inuyasha growled, letting his claws break skin. Blood dripped from the wounds, and the servant was struggling to speak, as Inuyasha had a tight hold on her throat. "I should just let you die here, choking on your own blood," he hissed, "but I know she won't like that." Inuyasha let her go.

"Letting a ningen control you? I'm not surprised, seeing as you're only a filthy half-breed," the demonness coughed out, laughing a bit. She started to get up.

Inuyasha picked the demonness up and slammed her against the wall. There were several snaps of bones breaking, but Inuyasha didn't care. "It's a shame you're so weak. You can't even defend yourself from this _half-breed_," Inuyasha spat. He didn't care if he killed her, and from the smell of things, he _did_ kill her. Sure, he had called Kagome things like a wench and possibly insulted her choice of clothing before, but that was _his_ job, not some pompous-assed servant's. He walked over to the table and sat down again.

"I wish you would learn when too much is too much," Sesshomaru said, clearly irritated. He stood up, picked up Kagome, and walked over to the slumped body that the other servants had crowded around. They all gave dirty looks to Kagome again, thinking she was responsible for everything. "Move," Sesshomaru commanded. The servants scattered.

Setting Kagome down on the floor, he pulled out Tensaiga and slashed at the soul-carriers around the body. He then turned, set on walking back, but then he felt that Kagome wasn't moving with him. Giving a tiny sigh of exasperation, he turned around, only to see that Kagome was healing the damn wench. What the hell was wrong with this human?

"Miko, as much as this demonness seems needy, she will heal on her own. This Sesshomaru has already brought her back to life; she needs no other boon," Sesshomaru told her.

"But…but…." Kagome protested.

"Miko, she insulted your honor. Will you still save her?" Sesshomaru demanded. "She is alive, and that's all she deserves."

"Will she be in a lot of pain?" Kagome asked.

Sesshomaru wanted to grab Kagome and just drag her back, but he knew that this could not be resolved cleanly that way. "She will be, but when her youkai finishes healing her, she will be, as much as I loathe to say it, perfectly fit."

"Oh. But she shouldn't have to endure all that pain if I can take it away now," Kagome argued.

"Kagome, listen to me. She is _my_ servant who not only spoke out of turn, but severely insulted my guest. She knew she would be punished, and if she thought otherwise, she was stupid. Let her be. This is for this Sesshomaru to decide," Sesshomaru said, trying to be gentle. He failed, for the most part, as it just came out as a command.

Kagome looked up at Sesshomaru, frowning. Then her expression cleared. "Hai, Sesshomaru-sama. I understand," she said, submitting to his will. Sesshomaru's beast crowed in victory, but it was very quickly shut down and shut up.

"Then we will return to the table." Sesshomaru once again picked up Kagome and strode gracefully back to the breakfast table. He set her down again next to him, his arm still around her waist. Kagome had learned to ignore it by now and didn't say anything. Inuyasha, however, was still fuming.

"Ano…Inuyasha….arigato," Kagome said quietly, a little bit intimidated by the surprisingly loud silence.

Inuyasha stopped muttering and blushed, looking away. "Eh, it was nothin'. Learn to stick up for yourself, wench!" Inuyasha said gruffly.

Kagome hated to be called wench, but she let it slide. Inuyasha felt protective? Fine. It was also because she would have ruined the food had she said 'sit' at that moment. Sesshomaru picked up his chopsticks and started to eat, and so everyone followed suit, content to use eating as a distraction. After about five more minutes of the deafening silence, Sesshomaru spoke.

"Kagome cannot leave my side."

"EH? Why you—" Inuyasha was about to continue when he saw the vein tick in Kagome's forehead. He didn't fancy being sat at the moment, so he stopped himself.

"What Sesshomaru means is that his patron has stuck us together until we discover what a riddle means. We have to be physically touching at all times," Kagome said, fighting a blush when she saw Miroku get a gleam in his eye.

"Monk, do not test my patience," Sesshomaru warned, seeing what Kagome saw.

Miroku promptly plastered an innocent look and said, "What is the riddle, Sesshomaru-sama?"

_Irritating, the whole lot of them,_ Sesshomaru thought. "It is in a scroll, which is sitting on my desk in the study." Sesshomaru paused here for a long time, studying his chopsticks. "If you do not cause any trouble, you two are….welcome to stay and assist in the solving of the riddle," Sesshomaru said slowly with distaste evident in his voice.

Inuyasha, Miroku, and Kagome all looked at him with shocked faces. Sesshomaru wanted to groan. This was exactly why he hated them so much! They were just so…_dumb_.

A/N:

So this is a shorter chapter…..sorry? The thing is, I'm leaving the country for a bit, and so I wanted to get this one out before I flew off. So……this means that there won't be an update until maybe a month or two. Sorry! Hey, this is at least better than the last chapter that took a year and a half to come out! Er….sorry again for how long this is taking me. It's obnoxious. Hope you liked it! Um….I hope this isn't too much of a cliff-hanger……you guys can probably think of what'll happen next. And sorry again….this chapter doesn't really move the plot line. And it kind of sucks. Um…anyway, thanks for reading, and if there's anything wrong or anything I can improve, please let me know!

-FongSaiYuk319


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